"Shall I have the honor, madam?" inquired the master of the house, coming up and offering his arm to take her into the dining room.
The rector spent the evening at Mondreer, and then, as a snowstorm was threatened, he accepted his host's and hostess' invitation and stayed all night with them.
Leonidas Force did not return to Mondreer that evening, but the circumstance caused no surprise nor uneasiness, as the young master of Greenbushes was often detained by business to so late an hour that he spent the night at the place.
"Now, tell the truth, and shame the devil, Roland Bayard! Where have you been for the last twenty-four hours?" inquired Miss Sibby, on the afternoon of the same day that witnessed the rector's visit to Mondreer.
"To tell you the truth, then, Aunt Sibby, I have been to Port Tobacco, waiting for a telegram."
"Yes, a telegram. After the wedding circus yesterday, the nobs decided to cuss the cost and send several miles of telegram to California, to find out the truth about that alleged marriage."
"Well, the squire couldn't take the message, and so he asked the rector to do it. And the rector promised everything the squire wanted, and then, when it was too late to go back from his word, he remembered that he had to make a sick call on a man that was given over by the doctors, and might have to stay with him all night. And I was there, and heard him bewailing his dilemma, and--what could a gentleman do? I offered to take the message to Port Tobacco, and wait there for the answer."
"Well, and to make a long story short, you went there and took the opportunity to stay all night and go on a lark among them low-life tavern people--you, the only adopted nephew and namesake of a lady descended from the Duke of England! I'm ashamed of you!" said Miss Bayard, wrathfully.
"I went there, and gave the message at the telegraph office, and waited for an answer until the office closed for the night. Then I went to the quietest hotel I could find----"
"Oh, yes, I know you did!" ironically interpolated the old lady.
"And I just took a chop and a cup of coffee, and went to bed," continued the youth, without noticing the interruption. "And the first thing the next morning I went to the office, and waited until it was opened. And the first telegram that came clicking over the wires was the one I waited for. And, as soon as ever I got it, I only waited to swallow a cup of coffee and a roll, mounted my horse, and hurried back to the rectory. And as soon as I gave his reverence the telegram I set off here!"