“Am I? I know nothing. I have been told that he came here two or three years ago with extraordinary prospects—”
“And he has not—justifahd or fulfilled them?”
“That’s about it.”
“Well, if that’s all!” Dade said loyally, tossing her head, and then she turned once more to watch Garwood.
His speech was brief. He finished in a fine burst of eloquence, with a hand uplifted, and his black locks shaking, and then sat down, amid a volley of applause, taking the hands of those who pressed about him, and smiling at each congratulatory word, though disparagingly, as if his achievement had been a small thing for him.
“Ah must meet him!” Dade announced, suddenly arising. “We’ll go. Yo’ must send in yo’ cahd. Can yo’? Will they let yo’?”
“Yes,” the lieutenant hesitated, “but—”
“But what?” Dade stood at her full height.
“I think you’d rather not see him—here.”
“Nonsense!” She stamped her foot petulantly, and her eyes flashed dangerously. “Ah mean to take him to task fo’ not calling on mamma and me. Ah’ve known him all my life!”