"What! Keith's young lady?" said Major Strause.
"Captain Keith," corrected Katherine Hunt.
"Captain Keith, if you like. We happened to be brother officers for a time in the same regiment. I thought he seemed very much taken with her the other day. But what can I do for you with regard to Miss Hepworth?"
"Will you bring her to me to be introduced, or shall I go with you? I want to see her, to speak to her, to look at her."
"Why this romantic interest?" queried Strause. "I do not know that there is anything very special about Miss Hepworth. She has a sister worth twenty of herself—a very fine girl indeed. Still, she is pretty, and, I believe, will have money."
"What has money to do with it?" asked Katharine Hunt. "I don't want to see her because she has money. I want to see her in order to speak to her. Can you introduce me?"
"I will try. Will you stay where you are? and I will, if possible, bring her back to you."
Major Strause re-entered one of the reception rooms Katherine Hunt waited in the balcony. Her heart was beating fast.
"I am curious—wonderfully curious," she said to herself. "I want to find out."
A moment later she heard a man's voice and a girl's silvery laughter. She turned. A girl with a radiant face—a face which beamed happiness on all around her—stood by her side. Major Strause performed the necessary introduction.