After tea the family and guests, with the new addition of Dr. Ingle--who dropped in, as usual--gathered in the drawing room, and engaged in merry games, in which they spent the Christmas evening. CHAPTER XLI HIS FATE "Aunt Elfrida, dear, I want to speak to you. Can you give me a few moments, quite alone, this morning?" inquired Le of Mrs. Force, in a low voice, as they left the breakfast room together, the last two in the rear of the party. "Yes, Le. Come into my siting room, where we shall be uninterrupted," replied the lady, in the same subdued tone, and with a somewhat troubled look, as if she anticipated a painful interview. The other members of the family passed on through the door on the right side of the hall and entered the drawing room. Mrs. Force turned from them and opened the door on the left and preceded Le into the little parlor. When they were both in the room, the lady shut the door and turned the key, and motioned Le to take one armchair on one side of the center table, while she herself sank into the other, saying: "Now then, Le, dear boy, I am ready to hear what you wish to say to me." "Maybe you know, Aunt Elfrida, that I am going to sea in a few days," he said, leaning over the table toward her. "Yes, Le, I heard so from your uncle, and was very sorry to hear it, dear boy." "I suppose my uncle told you why--just as I had come into a rich inheritance--I applied for sailing orders?" "Yes, Le." "And why, though now I would like to resign, I cannot, in honor, do so?" "He told me all, Le." "I shall be gone for three years, Aunt Elfrida." "I know it, and I am very sorry." "I--I shall leave you all on the second of January--and--and before I go I would like to have an understanding with you about--about Odalite," said Le, stammering and blushing as if he had been asking for the hand of his sweetheart for the first time; but, then, it was so soon after her broken marriage, and his act seemed so audacious. The lady turned pale and gripped the edge of the table for support. It had come, then, the ordeal she had dreaded so much. "Odalite!" she faltered. "Yes, Aunt Elfrida; and I should ask your pardon for speaking of my hopes just now! And I should not presume to do so, only that I am going away so soon, and am to be gone so long," faltered the lover, blushing more intensely than before. "What have you to say of Odalite, then?" inquired the lady. "Oh, Aunt Elfrida! Can you ask? I wish, first of all, your permission to correspond with her while I am away, just as I did before, you know! And then, most of all, I wish that it shall be understood--just as it was before--that when I return from my next voyage Odalite and I may be married. And--and, of course, I shall leave the navy then and settle down with Odalite at Greenbushes--just as it was understood and arranged that we should do before--before the stranger came to trouble us. That is what I want and hope and pray for, Aunt Elfrida!" pleaded the lover.