must turn
the screws on my lady. There shall be a New Year's wedding at Mondreer,
but Mr. Leonidas Force shall not be the happy bridegroom."

CHAPTER V

GREENBUSHES

Glad voices broke in upon Anglesea's brooding.

He looked up, and saw coming toward him the three young daughters of the
house--Odalite, Wynnette and Elva, attended by their governess, Miss
Meeke.

They were all equipped in their warm, brown cloth coats, buttoned up
before, and their brown, beaver poke bonnets tied under their chins. They
carried little baskets in their hands and dragged along sticks after
them.

"Will you take a walk with us through the woods this morning, Col.
Anglesea? Father has gone into town to attend court, you know; and mother
has a little headache, and has locked herself up in her room to lie down
and sleep. And we are going for a walk. Will you go?" inquired Odalite, as
graciously as she could force herself to do; for the girl secretly
detested the interloper, though her native good breeding prevented her
from ever betraying her feelings to their object. She had not failed to
perceive, through her own fine sympathies rather than through any
expression from Mrs. Force, that the lady was very much annoyed and
distressed by the presence of this intruder into the privacy of her
domestic circle; and so Odalite often quietly relieved her mother by
taking charge of the visitor's entertainment, as she did on this occasion
by inviting him to join their walking party.

Col. Anglesea looked at her with an amused smile, yet with more attention
than he had ever regarded her before.

"Will you come with us?" she inquired again, seeing that he hesitated to
reply.

"Thanks, very much! It is a temptation. Miss Force. In what direction do
you propose to walk?"

"Down the hill to the shore--then along the shore for three miles to
Greenbushes," replied the young lady.

"And then through the house, which is to be Le's and Odalite's home after
New Year, when they are married," volunteered Wynnette, a pretty, saucy
little brunette of fourteen years.

"Wynnette! Wynnette! Hush!" exclaimed Odalite, blushing vividly.

"Why must I hush? Everybody knows Le is coming home to marry you at
Christmas!" retorted the second sister.

"And what do you think, Col. Anglesea?" whispered Elva, a gentle, little
blonde of twelve.

"What, my elf?" playfully inquired the colonel.

"Why, when Le and Odalite get married and go to live at Greenbus