He stopped short and struck his palms together. "You are Tom Meredith's
little cousin!"
"The Great Harkless!" she answered, and stretched out her hand to him.
"I remember you!"
"Isn't it time?"
"Ah, but I never forgot you," he cried. "I thought I had. I didn't know
who it was I was remembering. I thought it was fancy, and it was memory. I
never forgot your voice, singing--and I remembered your face too; though I
thought I didn't." He drew a deep breath. "That was why----"
"Tom Meredith has not forgotten you," she said, as he paused.
"Would you mind shaking hands once more?" he asked. She gave him her hand
again. "With all my heart. Why?"
"I'm making a record at it. Thank you."
"They called me 'Sir Galahad's little sister' all one summer because the
Great John Harkless called me that. You danced with me in the evening."
"Did I?"
"Ah," she said, shaking her head, "you were too busy being in love with
Mrs. Van Skuyt to remember a waltz with only me! I was allowed to meet you
as a reward for singing my very best, and you--you bowed with the
indulgence of a grandfather, and asked me to dance."
"Like a grandfather? How young I was then! How time changes us!"
"I'm afraid my conversation did not make a great impression upon you," she
continued.
"But it did. I am remembering very fast. If you will wait a moment, I will
tell you some of the things you said."
The girl laughed merrily. Whenever she laughed he realized that it was
becoming terribly difficult not to tell her how adorable she was. "I
wouldn't risk it, if I were you," she warned him, "because I didn't speak
to you at all. I shut my lips tight and trembled all over every bit of the
time I was dancing with you. I did not sleep that night, because I was so
unhappy, wondering what the Great Harkless would think of me. I knew he
thought me unutterably stupid because I couldn't talk to him. I wanted to
send him word that I knew I had bored him. I couldn't bear for him not to
know that I knew I had. But he was not thinking of me in any way. He had
gone to sea again in a big boat, the ungrateful pirate, cruising with Mrs.
Van Skuyt."