"Yes, Mamma."
"You will not let the American freedom turn your head. You will be wise—Oh, I trust you, Maria Angelina, to be very wise!"
How wise Maria Angelina thought herself! She lifted a face that shone with confidence and understanding and for all her quivering lips she smiled.
"My baby!" said the mother suddenly in English and took that face between her hands and kissed it.
"You will be careful," she began again abruptly, and then stopped.
Too late for more cautions. And the child was so sage.
But it was such a little figure that stood there, such young eyes that smiled so confidently into hers. . . . And America was a long, long way off.
The bugles were blowing for visitors to be away. Just one more hurried kiss and hasty clasp.
An overwhelming fright seized upon the girl as the mother went down the ship's ladder into the small boat that put out so quickly for the shore.
Suppose she should fail them! After all she was not so wise—and not so very pretty. And she had no experience—none!