But that wasn’t the way Chicken Little looked at it.  She didn’t care much for the bit of dramatic denouement that had come about by accident,—­like a story, Elinor said,—­or the touch of poetic justice that tickled Mrs. Linceford’s world-instructed sense of fun.  Dakie Thayne wasn’t a sum that needed proving.  It was very nice that this famous general should be his uncle,—­but not at all strange:  they were just the sort of people he must belong to.  And it was nicest of all that Dr. Ingleside and Susan Josselyn should have known each other,—­“in the glory of their lives,” she phrased it to herself, with a little flash of girl enthusiasm and a vague suggestion of romance.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Mrs. Linceford said to Dakie Thayne next morning.  “Everybody would have”—­She stopped.  She could not tell this boy to his frank face that everybody would have thought more and made more of him because his uncle had got brave stars on his shoulders, and his father had died leaving two millions or so of dollars.

“I know they would have,” said Dakie Thayne.  “That was just it.  What is the use of telling things?  I’ll wait till I’ve done something that tells itself.”

CHAPTER XVII.

LEAF-GLORY.

There was a pretty general break-up at Outledge during the week following.  The tableaux were the finale of the season’s gayety,—­of this particular little episode, at least, which grew out of the association together of these personages of our story.  There might come a later set, and later doings; but this last week of August sent the mere summer-birds fluttering.  Madam Routh must be back in New York, to prepare for the reopening of her school; Mrs. Linceford had letters from her husband, proposing to meet her by the first, in N——­, and so the Haddens would be off; the Thoresbys had stayed as long as they cared to in any one place where there seemed no special inducement; General Ingleside was going through the mountains to Dixville Notch.  Rose Ingleside,—­bright and charming as her name; just a fit flower to put beside our Ladies’ Delight, finding out at once, as all girls and women did, her sweetness, and leaning more and more to the rare and delicate sphere of her quiet attraction,—­Oliver and Dakie Thayne,—­these were his family party; but there came to be question about Leslie and Delight.  Would not they make six?  And since Mrs. Linceford and her sisters must go, it seemed so exactly the thing for them to fall into; otherwise Miss Goldthwaite’s journey hither would hardly seem to have been worth while.  Early September was so lovely among the hills; opportunities for a party to Dixville Notch would not come every day; in short, Dakie had set his heart upon it, Rose begged, the General was as pressing as true politeness would allow, and it was settled.

“Only,” Sin Saxon said suddenly, on being told, “I should like if you would tell me, General Ingleside, the precise military expression synonymous with ‘taking the wind out of one’s sails.’  Because that’s just what you’ve done for me.”