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                       THE DORRANCE DOMAIN

                       _By_ CAROLYN WELLS


    _Illustrated by_
    PELAGIE DOANE

    GROSSET & DUNLAP
    _Publishers_      NEW YORK

    _Copyright, 1905_,
    BY W. A. WILDE COMPANY,
    _All rights reserved_.

    The Dorrance Domain.

    Made in the United States of America


[Illustration: "IF THAT'S THE DORRANCE DOMAIN, IT'S ALL RIGHT. WHAT DO
YOU THINK, FAIRY?"]




Contents


    CHAPTER                               PAGE

        I. COOPED UP                         9

       II. REBELLIOUS HEARTS                22

      III. DOROTHY'S PLAN                   35

       IV. THE DEPARTURE                    48

        V. THE MAMIE MEAD                   60

       VI. THE DORRANCE DOMAIN              73

      VII. MR. HICKOX                       86

     VIII. MRS. HICKOX                      99

       IX. THE FLOATING BRIDGE             112

        X. THE HICKOXES AT HOME            124

       XI. SIX INVITATIONS                 137

      XII. GUESTS FOR ALL                  149

     XIII. AN UNWELCOME LETTER             161

      XIV. FINANCIAL PLANS                 174

       XV. A SUDDEN DETERMINATION          188

      XVI. A DARING SCHEME                 201

     XVII. REGISTERED GUESTS               214

    XVIII. AMBITIONS                       226

      XIX. THE VAN ARSDALE LADIES          239

       XX. A REAL HOTEL                    252

      XXI. UPS AND DOWNS                   265

     XXII. TWO BOYS AND A BOAT             278

    XXIII. AN UNWELCOME PROPOSITION        290

     XXIV. DOROTHY'S REWARD                307




The Dorrance Domain




CHAPTER I

COOPED UP


"I _wish_ we didn't have to live in a boarding-house!" said Dorothy
Dorrance, flinging herself into an armchair, in her grandmother's room,
one May afternoon, about six o'clock.

She made this remark almost every afternoon, about six o'clock, whatever
the month or the season, and as a rule, little attention was paid to it.
But to-day her sister Lilian responded, in a sympathetic voice,

"_I_ wish we didn't have to live in a boarding-house!"

Whereupon Leicester, Lilian's twin brother, mimicking his sister's
tones, dolefully repeated, "I wish _we_ didn't have to live in a
boarding-house!"

And then Fairy, the youngest Dorrance, and the last of the quartet,
sighed forlornly, "I wish we didn't have to live in a _boarding-house_!"

There was another occupant of the room. A gentle white-haired old lady,
whose sweet face and dainty fragile figure had all the effects of an
ivory miniature, or a painting on porcelain.

"My dears," she said, "I'm sure I wish you didn't."

"Don't look like that, grannymother," cried Dorothy, springing to kiss
the troubled face of the dear old lady. "I'd live here a million years,
rather than have you look so worried about it. And anyway, it wouldn't
be so bad, if it weren't for the dinners."

"I don't mind the dinners," said Leicester, "in fact I would be rather
sorry not to have them. What I mind is the cramped space, and the
shut-up-in-your-own-room feeling. I spoke a piece in school last week,
and I spoke it awful well, too, because I just meant it. It began, 'I
want free life, and I want fresh air,' and that's exactly what I do
want. I wish we lived in Texas, instead of on Manhattan Island. Texas
has a great deal more room to the square yard, and I don't believe
people are crowded down there."

"There can't be more room to a square yard in one place than another,"
said Lilian, who was practical.

"I mean back yards and front yards and side yards,--and I don't care
whether they're square or not," went on Leicester, warming to his
subject. "My air-castle is situated right in the middle of the state of
Texas, and it's the only house in the state."

"Mine is in the middle of a desert island," said Lilian; "it's so much
nicer to feel sure that you can get to the water, no matter in what
direction you walk away from your house."

"A desert island would be nice," said Leicester; "it would be more
exciting than Texas, I suppose, on account of the wild animals. But then
in Texas, there are wild men and wild animals both."

"I like plenty of room, too," said Dorothy, "but I want it inside my
house as well as out. Since we are choosing, I think I'll choose to
live in the Madison Square Garden, and I'll have it moved to the middle
of a western prairie."

"Well, children," said Mrs. Dorrance, "your ideas are certainly big
enough, but you must leave the discussion of them now, and go to your
small cramped boarding-house bedrooms, and make yourselves presentable
to go down to your dinner in a boarding-house dining-room."

This suggestion was carried out in the various ways that were
characteristic of the Dorrance children.

Dorothy, who was sixteen, rose from her chair and humming a waltz tune,
danced slowly and gracefully across the room. The twins, Lilian and
Leicester, fell off of the arms of the sofa, where they had been
perched, scrambled up again, executed a sort of war-dance and then
dashed madly out of the door and down the hall.

Fairy, the twelve