Chapter XV. Penelope dreams.



West Belvern, Holly House
August 189-.

I am here alone. Salemina has taken her little cloth bag and her
notebook and gone to inspect the educational and industrial methods
of Germany. If she can discover anything that they are not already
doing better in Boston, she will take it back with her, but her
state of mind regarding the outcome of the trip might be described
as one of incredulity tinged with hope. Francesca has accompanied
Salemina. Not that the inspection of systems is much in her line,
but she prefers it to a solitude a deux with me when I am in a
working mood, and she comforts herself with the anticipation that
the German army is very attractive. Willie Beresford has gone with
his mother to Aix-les-Bains, like the dutiful son that he is. They
say that a good son makes a good- But that subject is dismissed to
the background for the present, for we are in a state of armed
neutrality. He has agreed to wait until the autumn for a final
answer, and I have promised to furnish one by that time. Meanwhile,
we are to continue our acquaintance by post, which is a concession I
would never have allowed if I had had my wits about me.

After paying my last week's bill in Dovermarle Street, including
fees to several servants whom I knew by sight, and several others