e parlour to wait for them. The
large room was very dim--the gasoline was misbehaving--and silent; she
shivered with apprehension. There was no sign of her mother. But
Trennahan's words and sympathy had given her courage, and she burned
with ambition to acquit herself creditably in his eyes.

The guests arrived rapidly. In ten minutes they were all in the parlour,
sixteen in number, the men in full dress, the women in organdies or
foulards showing little of arm and neck. Mrs. Washington was in pink;
Tiny in white and a seraphic expression; Rose wore black net and red
slippers, a bunch of red geraniums at her belt, her eyes slanting at the
men about her. With the exception of Ned Geary and Charley Rollins, a
friend of Helena's, with both of whom she had perhaps exchanged three
sentences in the course of her life, Magdalena knew none of the young
men: they had been brought, at Mrs. Yorba's suggestion, by the other
guests.

She could find nothing to say to them; she was watching the door. Would
her mother never come? Her father was on the front verandah talking to
Mr. Washington and her uncle.

Trennahan entered the room.

Magdalena drew herself up and went forward. She looked very dignified
and very Spanish. No one guessed, with the exception of Trennahan, that
it was the ordeal of her life.

"Mr. Trennahan," she said in a harsh even voice: "Mrs. Washington, Miss
Brannan, Miss Montgomery."

He flashed her a glance of admiration which sent the chill from her
veins, and began talking at once to the three women that she might feel
excused from further duty. A few moments later Mrs. Yorba entered. She
received Trennahan without a smile or a superfluous word. Mrs. Yorba was
never deliberately rude; but were she the wife of an ambassador for
forty years, her chill nipped New England nature would never even
artificially expand; the cast-iron traditions of her youth, when neither
she nor any of her acquaintance knew aught of socialities beyond church
festivals, could never be torn from the sterile but tenacious soil which
had received them.

Dinner was announced almost immediately. Mrs. Yorba signified to
Trennahan that he was to have the honour of taking her in; and as she
had not intimated how the rest were to be coupled, the women arranged
the matter to suit themselves. Mrs. Cartright went in with Don Roberto,
Mrs. Washington with Polk; there were no other married women present. As
Charley Rollins was standing by Magd