"Oh!" said Constance, her face suddenly blank.
"You can explain to him now," said her father, peering through the trees.
A commotion had suddenly arisen on the terrace--the rumble of wheels, the confused mingling of voices. Constance and Jerry looked too. They found the yellow omnibus of the Hotel du Lac, its roof laden with luggage, drawn up at the end of the driveway, and Mrs. Eustace and Nannie on the point of descending. The center of the terrace was already occupied by Lieutenant di Ferara, who, with heels clicked together and white gloved hands at salute, was in the act of achieving a military bow. Miss Hazel fluttering from the door, in one breath welcomed the guests, presented the lieutenant, and ordered Giuseppe to convey the luggage upstairs. Then she glanced questioningly about the terrace.
"I thought Constance and her father were here--Giuseppe!"
Giuseppe dropped his end of a trunk and approached. Miss Hazel handed him the lieutenant"s card. "The signorina and the signore--in the garden, I think."
Giuseppe advanced upon the garden. Jerry"s face, at the sight, became as blank as Constance"s. The two cast upon each other a glance of guilty terror, and from this looked wildly behind for a means of escape. Their eyes simultaneously lighted on the break in the garden wall. Jerry sprang up and pulled Constance after him. On the top, she gathered her skirts together preparatory to jumping, then turned back for a moment toward her father.
"Dad," she called in a stage whisper, "you go and meet him like a gentleman. Tell him you are very sorry, but your daughter is not at home today."
The two conspirators scrambled down on the other side; and Mr. Wilder with a sigh, dutifully stepped forward to greet the guests.