"Won't you wait," said Trixy appealingly, "until you show me the bad-people-killers?"
"Surely," replied Jermyn, "if afterward you will guide me to your mother."
The visit to the guns was prolonged to include a tour of the fort, about which Fenie was wildly curious, for she had never been inside of a fort, as her sister had in the days to which Jermyn had alluded, and she and Trif were such inseparable companions that she wished to know of everything that Trif knew. Jermyn proved to be capital company; besides, was he not a one-time admirer of Fenie's sister? Fenie felt entirely at ease with him, and she was delighted with the strangeness of everything she saw, so soon she was chatting as freely and cheerily as if she had never known a trouble.
Later in the morning Trif, seated on the piazza near the beach, was astonished to see her sister approaching with an army officer, with whom she seemed to be well acquainted. Soldiers looked very much alike to Trif; besides, she was so delighted at the sudden improvement in Fenie's appearance that she did not recognize Jermyn until her sister, with a roguish look, said:
"Trif, I'm astonished! Should auld acquaintance be forgot?"
"Mrs. Highwood!"
"Oh, Mr. Jermyn!"
Neither blushed, although Fenie had hoped they would. As for Trixy, who had not had much opportunity to talk during the walk through the fort, she looked intently at her invalid charge, her dear Aunt Fee. The instant there was a lull in the conversation, Trixy could not help saying:
"Mamma, seems to me that somethin's made Aunt Fee look awful weller all at once; don't you think so?"
Then the blushes, for which Fenie had looked in her sister's cheeks, hurried into her own, and refused to depart.