Upon this scene broke the bent figure of the old fortune-teller, with Nita by her side.
Mrs. Courtney was entertaining a guest in her most stately manner, but the words she was uttering died unspoken on her lips, and she sprang up with a strangled cry of alarmed surprise:
"Nita Farnham!"
"Nita Farnham!" echoed Azalea, in appalled tones, as though she had seen a ghost.
Ere Nita could speak old Meg's thin, rasping voice broke upon the hubbub of surprise, exclaiming:
"Yes, it's Nita Farnham, ma'am, sure enough. She wasn't drowned at sea, in spite of the storm. My son saved her life, and brought her back to Pirate Beach to-night. I hope you're glad to see her back," and she pushed Nita into a chair near the door and retreated, leaving her charge alone among them.
The eyes of the guests were upon the Courtneys, and no matter how they felt, it was incumbent on them to welcome Nita in a cordial manner. Nita got two cold little pecks on the cheek from mother and daughter, and some little murmurs of affection that she took at their true valuation.
Introductions followed, but Nita was weary, and rose from her seat, saying faintly that she would go to her room.
Some one came forward and offered his arm, and she shrank and trembled when she perceived that it was Donald Kayne. He bent and whispered, inaudibly, to the others:
"Say nothing yet, I beseech you. I was mad to do what I did, but God only knows the suffering that drove me to desperation."