point.




CHAPTER II

THE CAPTAIN CALLS


Now, when the card of Captain Kerissen was handed to Miss Arlee
Beecher the next afternoon, when she sauntered in from the sunny
out-of-doors and paused at the desk for the voluminous harvest of
letters the last mail had brought, and furthermore the information
was added that the Captain was waiting, little Miss Beecher's first
thought was the resentful appreciation that the Captain was
overdoing it.

She hesitated, then, with her hands full of letters and parasol, she
crossed the hall into the reception room. She intended to let her
caller see his mistake, so with her burdened hands avoiding a
handclasp, she greeted him and stood waiting, with eyes of inquiry
upon him.

The young man smiled secretly to himself. He was a young man not
without experience in ladies' moods and he had a very shrewd idea
that somebody had been making remarks, but he did not permit a hint
of any perception of the coolness of her manner to impair the
impeccable suavity of his.