The Mayor advanced with great politeness.
"I feared you didn't hear me call you, Miss Yerba, so we ventured to seek you." As the two girls exchanged almost infantile glances of surprise, he continued: "Mr.Paul Hathaway has done us the honor of seeking you here, as he did not find you at the convent.

You may have forgotten that Mr.Hathaway is the third one of your trustees." "And so inefficient and worthless that I fear he doesn't count," said Paul, "but," raising his eyes to Yerba's, "I fancy that I have already had the pleasure of seeing you, and, I fear, the mortification of having disturbed you and your friends in the parlor of the Golden Gate Hotel yesterday." The two girls looked at each other with the same childlike surprise.
Yerba broke the silence by suddenly turning to Milly.

"Certainly, you remember how greatly interested we were in the conversation of a party of gentlemen who were there when we came in.

I am afraid our foolish prattle must have disturbed YOU.

I know that we were struck with the intelligent and eloquent devotion of your friends." "Oh, perfectly," chimed in the loyal but somewhat infelix Milly, "and it was so kind and thoughtful of Mr.Hathaway to take them away as he did." "I felt the more embarrassed," continued Hathaway, smiling, but still critically examining Yerba for an indication of something characteristic, beyond this palpable conventionality, "as I unfortunately must present my credentials from a gentleman as much of a stranger as myself--Colonel Pendleton." The trade-wind was evidently making itself felt even in this pastoral retreat, for the two gentlemen appeared to shrink slightly within themselves, and a chill seemed to have passed over the group.