Just then Crullers whispered: “Here they come.”
While Isabel was trying to balance herself on a bamboo tabourette so that she could catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the mantel, the other girls entered from the corridor leading to the wide staircase, and hesitated.
“Dorothy,” called a pleasant voice from the hall. The elder girl looked over her shoulder, caught Polly’s glance, and smiled, then they both went on down the hall.
“Ready, mates?” asked the Admiral just then and Polly inquired who the other two girls were.
“Commodore Vaughan’s daughters from the Orienta Club,” answered the old Admiral. “And very mannerly children they are, too. You will meet them later. I was talking to the Commodore just a few minutes ago.”
“Well, I’m glad we shall know them, anyway,” said Polly, as she went up to where Aunty Welcome was waiting for them. “I wonder, girls, whether grown people speak of us as ‘children.’ I feel half-way grown-up now. I don’t think I’m a child.”
“Listen to her,” laughed Ruth. “And she’ll be fifteen next December. Don’t you remember, Kate, in the ‘Mikado,’ where somebody tells the three little maids they are not young ladies, they are only young persons.”
“Has you been a-finding dat teehee’s nest again?” asked Aunty Welcome, severely, as they all trouped into the room the Admiral had reserved for them. “Ain’t you ’shamed to come along a hotel corridor giggling like geese. And you-all from Virginny, too. Ain’t you got any State pride?”
“Oh, we will be good, Aunty,” pleaded Sue and Ted. “Don’t scold us. Just wait till we get out on an entire island all our own.”
“I speck you’ll bring my hairs in sorrow to de grabe before you get done,” Aunty prophesied, but her eyes twinkled, as she looked around her at her charges.