Jumping to my feet and rushing across the room to where Capitola was seated with the doctor, I begged her so earnestly not to admit Lieutenant Claiborne that I suppose I made myself ridiculous. She misunderstood my motive; but, with her quiet tact, she said to me, laughingly:
"Why, of course. I will arrange that your company shall not be interrupted."
She passed out to the hallway closing the door after her, while she held a consultation with some one, whom I knew to be my Lieutenant. If he had come into the room just then introductions would have ensued, and, of course, explanations must have followed; and, as I have so often said in these sketches, if there was any one thing that I desired to avoid more than another, it was any necessity for "explanations."
Capitola returned to the room, laughing heartily as the outside door closed with a bang, and saying to the doctor and the rest of us, as we rose to go: "Oh, no! seat yourselves and be at home here this evening."
There was not a word of reference to the visitor on her part until, in my eagerness, I found an opportunity to ask quietly if she had told Claiborne who we were.
"Why, yes; I merely told him some of your friends had called by a previously arranged agreement to spend the evening."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing at all, except that he would call later, and when I said that you would probably remain all the evening, he left me in a towering rage."
Then she added, laughing heartily as she spoke:
"Didn't you hear him slam the door?"