He took his niece by the arm and led her to the side of the room not visible from the doorway. She was too astonished to resist, but asked an agitated question.
“What is it?” she cried. “Who is coming?”
“Some friends of yours,” was the quiet reply. “Nothin’ to be frightened about. Steve, stay where you are.”
The boy was greatly excited. “Is it they?” he demanded. “Is it? By gad! Now, Sis, be a sensible girl. If he should try to hedge, you hold him. Hold him! Understand?”
“Steve, be quiet,” ordered the captain.... “Ah, Mrs. Dunn, good afternoon, ma’am. Mr. Dunn, good afternoon, sir.”
For the pair who, followed by Sylvester, now entered the room were Mrs. Corcoran Dunn and Malcolm.
They were past the sill before Captain Elisha’s greeting caused them to turn and see the three already there. Mrs. Dunn, who was in the lead, stopped short in her majestic though creaking march of entrance, and her florid face turned a brighter crimson. Her son, strolling languidly at her heels, started violently and dropped his hat. The lawyer, bringing up in the rear, closed the door and remained standing near it. Caroline uttered an exclamation of surprise. Her brother drew himself haughtily erect. Captain Elisha remained unperturbed and smiling.
“Good afternoon, ma’am,” he repeated. “It’s been some time since you and I run across each other. I hope you’re feelin’ pretty smart.”
Mrs. Dunn had faced some unpleasant situations in her life and had proved equal to them. Usually, however, she had been prepared beforehand. For this she had not been prepared—as yet. She had come to the offices of Sylvester, Kuhn, and Graves, at the senior partner’s request, to be told, as she supposed, the full and final details of the financial disaster threatening the Warren family. If those details should prove the disaster as overwhelming as it appeared, then—well, then, certain disagreeable duties must be performed. But to meet the girl to whom her son was engaged, and whom she and he had carefully avoided meeting until the lawyers should acquaint them with the whole truth—to meet this girl, and her brother, and her guardian, thus unexpectedly and unprepared, was enough to shake the composure and nerve of even such a veteran campaigner as Mrs. M. Corcoran Dunn.
But of the three to whom the meeting was an absolute surprise,—Caroline, Malcolm and herself—she was characteristically the first to regain outward serenity. For a moment she stood nonplused and speechless, but only for a moment. Then she hastened, with outstretched arms, to Caroline and clasped her in affectionate embrace.