“Did you ever?” asked Betty, as rather silently they mounted the stairs.
“I never did,” replied Cathalina, and then they dismissed the matter, hurried into their pretty frocks, and hurried down into the parlors with the rest of the girls.
CHAPTER XV.
THE KNIGHT APPEARS.
Halls and parlors were full of laughing boys and girls. Their years, perhaps, might entitle them or some of them to be called young men and women, but this generation does not marry off its girls at sixteen or seventeen and its boys at scarcely more than twenty. The military school trained youths from about fifteen to twenty, many of them from families who liked to have their sons in military training for a few years. The ages, then, correspond well with those of the Greycliff girls, and it was not hard to arrange partners for dinner. This had been largely done beforehand by a committee of girls and teachers, a few changes having been made as the personnel of the assembled company was noted, or as personal requests came in. Under or in the midst of palms and other plants not far from the entrance, was a little table where sat Patricia West, Dr. Norris, and one or two others of the younger teachers. There the cadets or officers gave their names or cards and were handed cards which contained the names of their dinner partners.
“You can’t just go in, pick out the prettiest girl and ask her to go to dinner with you, then?” asked one young officer who knew Dr. Norris.
“Not this time,” replied Dr. Norris, “but keep your eye on her and get her to go skating with you this evening; or get with the group at her table.”
“O, you couldn’t do that, you know,” cried Patty, “because we will have place cards fixed from these duplicates, as soon as everybody is here.”
“All right, Doc, how do I pick her out?”
Dr. Norris beckoned to one of several girls who stood near, and who were trying hard not to laugh at this conversation. “Miss Mills will find the lady for you, Lieutenant Maxwell.”
“‘The lady or the tiger,’” murmured this irrepressible youth to Dr. Norris, then acknowledged his introduction to Miss Mills and gallantly escorted her through the throng in the hall. “Do you happen to know whether the fair lady is one of the girls or—ah—a teacher?” the young lieutenant asked Jane as she stopped to look and locate the damsel.