Thanking her warmly, the girl hurried up the board walk to the hotel,—the children tagging on behind her,—feeling extremely nervous as she realized her boldness in asking a big physician, who had probably come to the mountains for a rest, to be bothered with a poor patient. And then, too, who knew what terribly high prices he might ask for his services? Nathalie began to feel that her “drop in the bucket” might not prove of any help after all. But, bracing to the ordeal, she told the children to wait at the little Observation Tower, as she called it, in front of the hotel, and hurried to the office. She had just nervously cleared her throat to question the clerk when the sudden cry, “Oh, Nathalie! Nathalie! where did you come from?” caused her to swing about. The next moment Nita Van Vorst had her arms about her, and was hugging and kissing her excitedly, while her mother stood by with pleased, shining eyes. After a hearty greeting from Mrs. Van Vorst, Nathalie cried laughingly, although the sudden revulsion from nervous anxiety had brought tears to her eyes, “Oh, where did you come from, and when did you get here?” “We arrived last night,” replied Nita, bubbling over with delight at being with her friend again. “Our coming here is a surprise _for you_, and we were just going to see if we could get some information as to where Seven Pillars was, so as to motor there.” “Oh, I’m so glad to see you, and now you can see my boys!” And then, after Mrs. Van Vorst had led them into one of the little side-rooms opening from the long hall, where they could converse without being heard, she told all about her boys,—Sheila, the boy-girl, as she called her, the good times they were all having, and about the young man who was lying so ill up on the mountain, and what had brought her to the hotel. “I am so nervous,” sighed the girl, as she finished her story, “for I don’t know this big man, and I dread to speak with him, for fear he will be brusque and sharp with me, but _something_ must be done for that poor soldier boy.” “Excuse me a moment,” exclaimed Mrs. Van Vorst after she had conversed a while; “I want to go and see if I have any mail.” But, to Nathalie’s surprise, she did not go in the direction of the desk, but hurried after a tall, rather stout gentleman who at that moment passed through the hall. But the little incident was forgotten, as Nathalie and Nita had so much to say to one another that they both talked at once, as if their tongues were hung in the middle. Nita insisted that her friend would have to remain to dinner with her, as she had so much news to tell, especially about the Liberty Girls, that it would take hours to tell it.