“Does that startle you?  I don’t imagine it’s for any long stay, but as a matter of some scientific investigations.  Here, don’t go to looking sober.  I shall be sorry I told you.”

Charlotte smiled and answered brightly that it was not a thing to look sober over.  Nevertheless, her thoughts were much with her sister.  The next morning, as the party found their places on the little steamer which was to take them down the river to Mount Vernon, she found herself watching Celia more closely than she had meant to do, in the anxiety to discover if the trip to India was really imminent.

“Isn’t Mount Vernon a fascinating spot?” asked Evelyn, as she and Jeff walked up the long, ascending road from pier to house together.  “I’ve never forgotten my first visit.  I lived in Washington’s times in my dreams for weeks afterward.  I never saw it at this season of the year.  The garden must be in its prime now.”

“Let’s go and see it first,” responded Jeff, quickly.  “I don’t remember much about it.  My two visits here have all been spent in the house.”

So while the others rambled through the quaint and interesting rooms, Jeff and Evelyn made their way to the box-bordered paths of Lady Washington’s garden, and wandered about there in the warm June sunshine.  It grew so hot after a while that they betook themselves to the lawn and banks overlooking the river, and sat there talking, as they watched the waters of the Potomac.

“What are you going to do when you get home?” asked Jeff, somewhat suddenly.

“Put our rooms in order,” Evelyn responded, promptly.

“All by yourself?”

“We live in the same house with a lovely little woman, the wife of a former Confederate general.  I shall be with her until Thorne comes.”

“I suppose you’ve lots of friends of your own age?” Jeff observed.

“Not as many as I ought to have.  You see, I’ve lived very quietly with my brother for six years now, except for the time I spent at a girls’ school in Baltimore.  Since I came home from there I’ve not been very strong, and Thorne has kept me very quiet, until he sent me North to school last fall.”

“You’re so well now you’ll be going about a lot.  Any young people in the house with you?  It’s a boarding-house, isn’t it?”

“Yes, a small one.  There are no young people in it except Mrs. Livingstone’s son.”

“How old a fellow?”

“Twenty-one, I believe.”

“I suppose you’re great friends with him?” said Jeff suspiciously.

Evelyn looked at him quickly and laughed, flushing a little.  “Why, we’re naturally very good friends,” she said.

“Evelyn,” said Jeff, sitting up straight again, “I’m absolutely bursting to tell you some news, and I can’t seem to lead up to it.  I’ve got to bring it out flat.  The only thing I’m anxious about is whether it’s going to be as good news to you as it is to me.”

She looked at him with a quickening of her pulses, his expression had become so very eager.  “Please don’t keep me in suspense,” she begged.