into their
midst, her sister more timidly following.

"_Dear_ Mrs. Marsden, how perfectly (kiss, kiss) delicious! Yes, this is
the baby sister I've raved to you about. We go right on with the Doric;
but I _had_ to bring her out with me that you might have just one glance
at her. Why! Mr. Prime! Why, what could be more charming than to find you
here? And 'Gov.' _too_--you wicked boy! What won't I do to you for never
telling me you were in Manila? And Mildred!" (kiss--kiss, despite a
palpable dodge and heightened color on part of the half-dazed recipient).
"And you, too, Miss Lawrence?" (Both hands, but no kiss--one hand calmly
accepted). "Ah, then I know how happy _you_ are, Mr. Willie Gray!"
(beaming arch smiles upon that flushed and flustered young officer. Then,
turning again to twine a jeweled arm about the slim waist of their
hostess, to whom she clung as though defying any effort to dislodge, yet
pleading for protection): "Who on earth could have foretold that we of
all people should have met out here--of all places? How long did you say
you had been here? A week? And of course, dear Mrs. Marsden has done
everything to make it lovely for you. _I_ should have _died_ without
her." And so the swift play of words went on, the rapid fire of her
fluent tongue covering the movement of her allies and drowning all
possibility of reply. It was an odd and trying moment. Mrs. Marsden, well
knowing, as who in Honolulu did not, of Mrs. Frank's devotion to the
young lieutenant, barely six months agone, was striving to welcome the
shrinking little scare-faced thing that blindly and helplessly had
drifted in in the elder sister's wake. The introductions that followed,
after the American fashion, were as perfunctory as well-bred women can
permit. The greetings were almost solemn, smileless, and, on part of
Nita, fluttering to the verge of a faint; and nothing but Witchie's
plucky and persistent support, and the light flow of airy chat and
laughter, carried her through the ordeal. The two young soldiers stood
stiffly back, red-faced and black-browed; the father, pallid and cold,
could hardly force himself to unbend, yet his lips mumbled the name "Mrs.
Frost," as he bowed at presentation; Miss Prime stood erect and
trembling; Miss Lawrence, with brave eyes but heightened color. To leave
at once was impossible; to remain was more than embarrassment. Most
gallantly did they battle, Mrs. Marsden and Mrs. Frank, to lift the wet
blanket f