“Mr. Hiltze is nothing to us. Toss him away. Come now, let’s doll up for our party.”
They were two radiantly lovely girls who stood in the little garden on the roof of the sun parlor, waiting for the men who ran up the wavering rustic stairs to join them.
“Oh, girls,” cried Nolan plaintively, as he saw them in their beauty. “It is not fair of you to look like this. Marie, you are exquisite. Eveley, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
“Yes, we are,” said Eveley pleasantly. “Jimmy, I want you to meet my darling and adorable little friend, Marie Ledesma. This is Lieutenant Ames, Marie.”
Lieutenant Ames stood very tall and slim and straight as he looked into Marie’s face. Then he saw the soft appeal in her eyes.
“Be good to me,” they seemed to beg, “be generous, and kind.”
It was in answer to this plea of the limpid eyes that he held out his hand with sudden impulse, and said:
“Miss Ledesma, when Eveley speaks like that, I know your friendship is a priceless boon, and I want my share of it. I am receiving a sort of psychic message that you and I are destined to be good comrades.”
A sudden wave of light swept over her lovely face, and her lips parted in a happy smile.
“Lieutenant Ames,” she whispered in her soft voice, “do you really feel so? And then you also are my friend?”