Her attention was centred on picking
out Mrs. Harland and Falconer among the people who were waiting to meet
friends, and on seeing whether Nick Hilliard was with them.
There was a crowd on the platform. Pretty "summer girls" with bare heads,
over which they held parasols of bright green, or rose-red, that threw
charming lights and shadows on their tanned faces: brown young men in
khaki knickerbockers, shaking hands with paler men just coming from town,
and little children in white, laughing at sight of arriving "daddies".
Soon Falconer, towering over most others, appeared with his sister by his
side, and Carmen was pleased to see that Mrs. Harland's clothes could not
compare with hers. Having no idea of suiting her costume to the country,
she thought herself infinitely preferable in her Paris gown to Mrs.
Harland in a cotton frock, and shady straw hat. But no Nick was visible,
and Carmen's pleasure was dashed.
The brother and sister met her cordially, took her to look at the bubbling
spring in its kiosk, and then up the height on the scenic railway.
Presently they landed on the level of the parklike plateau, where a big
hotel and its attendant cottages were visible, with many golden dolomitic
peaks and great white Shasta itself peeping through the trees.
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