Allen’s smile returned before he found his voice, and was so infectious that Alice, Mrs. Gorham, and Patricia were also smiling broadly.

“It’s awfully good to see you again, Alice,” he said, with a sincerity which could not be doubted; “and to meet you, too, Mrs. Gorham, not forgetting Lady Pat.”  And then, as if in explanation, “You see, as Alice says, she and I were pals when we were youngsters in Pittsburgh, and I can’t realize that now she’s grown up into such a—­”

“Do you remember the games of baseball we used to play together?” Alice interrupted.

“Indeed I do,” he responded.  “She could throw a ball overhand just like a boy,” Allen continued, turning to Mrs. Gorham lest he seem to discriminate in his attentions.

“She can’t do it now, but I can,” Patricia remarked, with an air of superiority, subsiding as Alice glanced meaningly at her.

“And once you thrashed Jim Thatcher for calling me a tomboy.  Oh, I looked upon you as a real story-book hero!”

“I suspect that’s the only time on record.”  Allen laughed again consciously.  “That’s one epithet I haven’t had hurled at me enough times to make me nervous.”  He looked at the horses critically.  “You don’t suppose there’s any chance of a runaway here to give me another opportunity, do you?”

“How about the football games, and the races at New London?” Alice asked.

“What do you know about those?”

“I read all about everything in the papers.  Your father was so proud that he told my father and every one about your college record; so, you see, your friends had no difficulty in keeping posted.”

“My father was proud of me?” Allen demanded, in genuine astonishment.  “Haven’t you gotten things a little mixed?  That doesn’t sound like the pater at all.  He didn’t boast any of my record in my studies, did he?”

“Father didn’t say.”  Alice leaned forward mischievously.  “Did you get your degree cum laude, Allen?”

“Not exactly,” he answered, frankly. “Cum difficultate would be more like it; but I got it, anyhow.”

“And what have you been doing since?” Mrs. Gorham asked.

“I went abroad right after Commencement.”

“To perfect yourself in the languages?”

“Well”—­the boy hesitated—­“that may have been the pater’s intention, but he didn’t state it audibly.  As a matter of fact, I perfected myself in running an automobile more than anything else, but I had a corking good time.”

“And now what?  You see how inquisitive I am,” Alice said.

“And now”—­he repeated it after her—­“I want to go into business, and the pater says diplomacy for mine.  We’ve had lots of arguments over it, until we finally compromised it just as we usually do—­by my doing it his way.  So here I am in Washington, awaiting my country’s call, ready to steer the great U.S.A. through any old international complication they can scare up.  But I mustn’t keep you and Mrs. Gorham here any longer.  It is just fine to see you again.”