"Kate! Will you kindly remember that Miss Wardlow is a lady? I'm surprised that you should make such an insinuation."
"I've insinuated nothing, but there is something behind Trixy's letter. She's a very longheaded child, and the family adores her, and she is always with Trif and Fenie, and hears everything they say, so——"
"Do you really think that Miss Wardlow herself wanted a picture of me?" interrupted Harry.
"That is exactly what I do think. Oh, Harry! I didn't suppose a man could blush so splendidly! There, there—don't be ashamed of it; 'tis wonderfully becoming, and——"
Kate was an affectionate sister, so she stopped long enough to throw her arms about her brother and kiss him soundly. Then she continued:
"Send a picture to the child at once—and do send that doll also. I'd send with it the lot that I promised, if I wasn't afraid that the family would ask questions, and I would be dreadfully mortified if they were to learn that I questioned Trixy closely on a certain subject several days ago. I wish I knew what the child means by saying that she's going travelling. I wonder if—oh, well, I'll make some calls elsewhere, and find out all about it."
Meanwhile Trif, Trixy and Fenie were postponing their further journeying southward. Old Point Comfort is a hard place to leave; one finds old friends, learns that new ones are coming; so the days slip by delightfully. The air seemed to be doing wonders for both Fenie and Trixy, and Trif was enjoying herself as a clever young woman always can where good company abounds, and she can give her entire time to it. Besides, Lieutenant Jermyn assured her that the season was so far advanced that she would find Florida uncomfortably hot.
Jermyn had also put Trif entirely at ease by not showing a bit of sentimentality over the woman he had loved and lost. He was so entirely himself in her presence that she imagined him happily married, although she did not like to question him on the subject. He was quite attentive to Fenie, too, and made haste to introduce several brother officers, who made themselves interesting, so Fenie seldom was without the attendance of some man in uniform. Her admirers were not all young, either, for admiration of womanhood appears to be one of the original elements of the military nature, so several elderly officers frequently sought the society of Fenie and her sister, and as Fenie was the younger, and unmarried, she innocently took all the admiration to herself. Finally, when a retired admiral, himself as young at heart and engaging in conversation as any of his juniors, paid special attention to Fenie, that young woman became so exuberant of cheerfulness that she read herself a severe lecture, almost at midnight, when there was no one else for her to talk to.
How dreadfully she was neglecting Trixy, too! She had promised to watch the child carefully, yet Trixy ran at will upon the beach, and buried herself in sand, and several times a day she ventured close enough to the water to wet her feet, and Fenie was always going to keep her from doing so again, but Trif was the only one who did it. Fenie told herself that she was becoming a dreadfully selfish girl, but really she never seemed to find time to do anything that ought to be done.