"Was a Chinaman!" cried both girls.
"A Chinaman!" exclaimed the crowd as one girl.
"Yes," said Jane, while Estella danced up and down and nodded violently. "He had her cloak over his arm, and she spoke to him in some jabbery language, Chinese I suppose, and he shook the cloak open and put it around her shoulders. It was soft white fur."
"Simply too lovely," sighed Estella.
"Then she said good-night, nothing else, and went out with the Chinaman following," completed Jane.
"Who can she be?" said Estella dreamily.
"A fairy princess, I reckon."
"Fairy fiddlesticks!" laughed the little Captain. "It is all very simple. Her father has been here to see me. He is a colonel in the Army and for a long time was stationed in China. Hence the Chinese servant. Her father, Colonel Maslin, is very anxious to have her know some nice girls. Claire joined the Girl Scouts when they were stationed in Washington. Colonel Maslin says Claire finds it difficult to make advances, and I want you all to be as friendly as you can be."
"Well, I would hate to have a heathen holding my cloak," said Mabel piously. "What did he have on?"
"Chinese clothes, of course, and made of silk, and all loose and baggy and flowing and embroidered, and sort of bluish and purplish and goldish."