“We will,” said Eloise, filling the last cup.
“Do you suppose that these wonderfully fresh doughnuts came all the way from the ranch?” asked Cathalina, after the departure of Eloise.
“O, no,” answered Lilian. “Her married sister lives somewhere in this state. I wish mine did.”
The ice carnival had promoted acquaintance with the cadets and officers at the military school, which was known as Grant Military Academy. Distance was too great for frequent calls, but not for occasional ones. Brothers and cousins could sometimes come to Greycliff for Sunday dinner, or called on Saturday afternoon. These calls became more frequent after the skating affair, nor were they limited entirely to relatives. Corporal Donald Hilton was related to Dorothy Appleton, but it was Betty Barnes for whom he asked on several occasions. Once Captain Van Horne called and asked to see Cathalina, who was greatly impressed and felt that she was quite grown up to have so mature a gentleman call upon her. For the girls thought that he must be “at least twenty-four or five.” Captain Holley was seen at Greycliff several times, and was very popular with the collegiate girls, to whom he made himself especially agreeable. Betty and Cathalina failed to understand what he was doing about that cave, but came to the conclusion that he must be all right if everybody else thought so.
“Captain Van Horne’s first name is Allen,” Cathalina informed Betty and Hilary one day after the important call. “He lives in New York, too, and knows where my father has his office and everything, but when I told him who my father was and all, I thought he seemed different. Do you suppose it was the old money? He had been telling me about how he happened to come to the school. He’s going to be a lawyer, and couldn’t afford to keep on going to law school right straight along, so he’s reading law and teaching for a while.”
“Maybe it was a little shock to be real interested in a girl and want to see something of her and then find that she had everything on earth,—if you were poor yourself.”
“It’s really against you, then, to have a rich father,” said Cathalina soberly.
“O, no, Cathalina,” exclaimed Hilary. “If anybody really cared for you, it couldn’t make any difference; you are so dear.”
“No, the poor boys can’t afford to get interested in girls that they feel they can’t do anything for. I’ll see what this one does, not that he has any serious ideas about matters, it is silly to think of it,—but, I mean, to call and pay some attention to a girl, you know. I’m not thinking of Captain Van Horne especially, but any young man.”
“Would your father want you to marry a poor man?”