That afternoon tea-party in Miss Hastings’ suite was one of the nicest things that had ever happened to Agnes Kenway. She had dreamed of being entertained by a person like the Back Bay girl, served tea and cakes from a tea-wagon and by a French maid in beruffled cap and an apron not much bigger than a special delivery postage stamp!
Neale said that Agnes began to purr like a satisfied kitten almost as soon as she had shaken hands with the Back Bay girl. Once convinced that she had not been intentionally slighted on the boat (for Miss Hastings could tell of her dental predicament now with honest laughter), the beauty sister proved herself to be one of the most attractive girls in the world.
“I’ve wanted to know you, Miss Agnes, and Miss Kenway, ever since you came aboard the Horridole,” Nalbro Hastings said, in a winning way. “And I must thank you girls first of all for lending me Mr. O’Neil, who is a very efficient aid in almost anything social, I fancy.”
“Easy on the Mister O’Neil stuff,” growled Neale. “I’ve got a first name, you know.”
“We have trained him very well,” said Ruth demurely, “save in language. He uses the most atrocious slang.”
“But he’s a good worker,” admitted Agnes, staring coolly at Neale. “We have brought him up to be useful.”
“Good in the pinches,” muttered the much maligned Neale, but grinning.
It was a jolly occasion in every particular. Agnes perhaps had her eyes opened regarding the manners of Back Bay society girls. Nalbro Hastings was just as friendly and demure a girl as the flyaway Kenway had ever met. The latter continued somewhat subdued, herself.
During the next few days the Kenways saw a good deal of Miss Hastings. They searched out all the interesting parts of the old town together. The settlement dated back to a time soon after the coming of Columbus to the West Indies. It was not so old as Nassau; but there was an old fort at the harbor’s mouth; a monastery, grim enough of appearance, that might be turned very easily into a fortress overlooking the town; and a nunnery of dazzling white outer walls, but glowing with color inside, where the girls almost wrecked their pocketbooks buying fancy work.
Luke had to attend Professor Keeps on his first jaunt into the interior of the island, and was gone a week. Meanwhile Mr. Howbridge had several conferences with a business friend whose grapefruit plantations dotted the island. It was to see this man and arrange for the investment of some of his loose capital in the States that the lawyer from Milton had made this trip to St. Sergius.