Nevertheless, he kissed her very tenderly as he untwined her circling arms. The past two months had been very lonely ones for him without her. "Will you try to make Miss Woodhull let us see each other?" she begged. "I'll think about it. I'll think about it. And do you do some thinking too lest you disgrace Woodbine. "I'm _going_ to think. _Hard_," she added, as together they entered the cheerful dining room. CHAPTER XII AFTER THE HOLIDAYS The session between the Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation always seemed a brief one, filled as it is with plans for the latter holiday. When the Thanksgiving holiday was over Beverly and the boys went back to their respective schools under Admiral Seldon's escort. At least he went as far as Front Royal with Athol and Archie, leaving them at that point to go on by themselves while he accompanied Beverly to Leslie Manor. He was minded to have a few words with Miss Woodhull and know something more of the lady's character than he already knew. The outcome of that interview left a good deal to be desired upon the Admiral's part. He returned to Woodbine "with every gun silenced," and the lady triumphant in her convictions that _her_ methods of conducting a school for girls were quite beyond criticism. It would be utterly impossible for Beverly to even think of visiting her brother at Kilton Hall, she said, nor could she consent to Athol visiting Leslie Manor. She did not wish to establish a precedent. As to Archie _ever_ coming there, _that_ idea was preposterous. Why every boy for miles around would feel at liberty to call upon her pupils and they would be simply besieged. She had conducted her school successfully for many years under its present methods and until she saw more cogent reasons for changing she should continue to do so. Had not the Admiral made arrangements for the year it is safe to surmise that Beverly would have returned to Woodbine with him, and his frame of mind, and the remarks to which he gave utterance, as he drove back to the junction, elicited more than one broad grin or chuckle from Andrew J. Jefferson as he drove. But Beverly did not know anything about it. So the weeks sped by until the Christmas recess drew near and the girls were once more planning to scatter, far and wide, for their two-weeks holiday. Now be it known that Petty had returned from her Thanksgiving trip to Annapolis in a more sentimental frame of mind than ever, and filled as full of romance as an egg is of meat.