Five minutes later the suburban train was gliding into the Grand Central Station.
“There’s Jerry!” cried Geraldine, joyfully, as they hurried along the crowded platform, and the next moment she was rapturously hugging a tall schoolboy, whose round, good-humored face displayed an odd mixture of pleasure and embarrassment.
“Oh, Jerry, you darling, I am glad to see you! When did you get home?”
“Last night,” returned her brother, extricating himself, not without some difficulty, from her embrace. “School closed yesterday, and I came home on the Boston Flyer. I say, old girl, you needn’t hug a fellow like that before people, you know. Where’s Gretel?”
“She was here a minute ago,” said Geraldine. “Oh, there she is, talking to Molly Chester. Are Mr. or Mrs. Douaine here?”
“I don’t know; I haven’t seen them. Mother sent me in the car, and it’s waiting outside, so we can drop Gretel at her house just as well as not. Who’s that girl talking to the man with gray hair?”
“That’s Angel Thayer,” said Geraldine, following her brother’s glance. “She’s pretty, isn’t she? I’ll introduce you if I get a chance. That gentleman must be her uncle. Her father has gone to the war. Oh, Jerry, isn’t the war exciting?”
“I should say it was! I only wish I were old enough to enlist. Some of the seniors are doing it, but they won’t take a fellow unless he’s over eighteen, worse luck. Oh, there’s Mrs. Douaine, so Gretel’s all right. We may as well go along.”
Gretel had stood a little in the background while her friends were being greeted by their various relatives, but at sight of a very pretty young woman hurrying towards her through the crowd, her face brightened, and she ran eagerly forward to greet her sister-in-law.
“I am so sorry to be late, Gretel dear,” Mrs. Douaine said, kissing her affectionately. “I left home in plenty of time, but we met a regiment marching down Fifth Avenue, and there was such a block in the traffic, I thought I should never get here. Did you give your check to the expressman on the train?”