"I feel as if I were part of a triumphal procession," said Nan to Carter, "as if ahead of us might be some great king whom we are escorting to his palace, and that we girls were the ladies in waiting to attend his queen. This might be the bridal procession and we might be going from the church after the ceremony. He is a Spanish king, of course, because those are his courtiers on horseback."
Just at this juncture the band struck up Dixie. Carter was on his feet in an instant waving his hat and shouting, "Three cheers for the old Dominion!" The girls shrilled out their cheers and bystanders smiled at the enthusiastic four whose example was followed by so many as to prove that the land of Dixie had many representatives in that crowd.
Up and down the parade passed in review, but at last it came to an end and the girls sought their friends at the hotel. "Wasn't it the grandest thing you ever saw?" cried Jack throwing herself on Mr. Pinckney, thus knocking to one side her coronet which was already awry.
"Yes," he assured her, "it was about as fine as anything I ever saw."
"Aren't you sorry you weren't in it?" asked Jean.
"Well, no, to tell you the truth I am not, for I think we all saw much more than you did."
"It wasn't so much the seeing as the being," remarked Nan.
"And did you hear us cheer when they played Dixie?" asked Jack.
"Hear you?" said Mr. Pinckney laughing. "I heard a mighty shout but I didn't know it was you making all the noise."
"Pasadena is such a beautiful place I don't know why we didn't come here to live," said Jean.