"Those are my orders. It's cooler outside, you know, anyway, and----"
"Pardon me, Miss Mitford, orders never have to be explained, you know," interrupted the Captain, smiling at the charming girl.
"That's right; I take back the explanation," she said, as Thorne stepped toward the window; "and, Captain," cried the girl.
Thorne laughed, as he lighted his cigar and stepped out onto the porch, and thence into the darkness of the garden path.
"Oh," said Caroline to herself, "he is splendid. If Wilfred were only like that!" she pouted. "But then--our engagement's broken off anyway, so what's the difference. If he were like that--I'd---- No!--I don't think I'd----"
Her soliloquy was broken by the entrance of Mrs. Varney, who came slowly down the room.
"Why, Caroline dear! What are you talking about, all to yourself?"
"Oh--just--I was just saying, you know--that--why, I don't know what I was---- Do you think it is going to rain?" she returned in great confusion.
"Dear me, child; I haven't thought about it. Why, what have you got on? Is that a new dress, and in Richmond?"
"A new dress? Well, I should think so. These are my great-grandmother's mother's wedding clothes. Aren't they lovely? Just in the nick of time, too. I was on my very last rags, or, rather, they were on me, and I didn't know what to do. Mother gave me a key and told me to open an old horsehair trunk in the attic, and these were in it." She seized the corners of her dress and pirouetted a step or two forward to show it off, and then dropped the older woman an elaborate, old-fashioned courtesy. "I ran over to show them to Edith," she resumed. "Where is she? I want her to come over to my house."
"Upstairs, I think. I am afraid she can't come. I have just come from her room," Mrs. Varney continued as Caroline started to interrupt, "and she means to stay here."
"I will see about that," said Caroline, running out of the room.
Mrs. Varney turned and sat down at her desk to write a letter which evidently, from her sighs, was not an easy task. In a short time the girl was back again. Mrs. Varney looked up from writing and smiled at her.
"You see it was no use, Caroline," she began.
"No use," laughed the girl; "well, you will see. I didn't try to persuade her or argue with her. I just told her that Captain Thorne was waiting for her in the summerhouse. Yes," she continued, as Mrs. Varney looked her astonishment; "he is still here, and he said he would take her over. You just watch which dress she has on when she comes down. Now I will go out there and tell him she'll be down in a minute. I have more trouble getting people fixed so that they can come to my party than it would take to run a blockade into Savannah every fifteen minutes."