The Major detected raillery. "I should have a go at it before you were up in the morning." "Oh, well, then I must be content with the humble function of helping to relax your mind afterwards." "But you wouldn't mind our coming?" "You don't appreciate how fond I am of the General." "Well, he half-worships you, Miss Wilson. And you'll put up with my company for his sake?" "He's too distinguished a man to carry the rugs and cushions." "You can fag me as much as you like on board. The difficulty is to get enough moving about." "On that distinct understanding, I won't veto the party, Major Merriam." She laughed. "But, of course, I've really got nothing to say to it. It's for Mrs. Lenoir to decide, isn't it?" Bertie Merriam felt that he had obtained permission, but hardly encouragement--just as the General was convinced that he had made a suggestion and not received one. But permission was enough. "I shall tell the General I've squared you," he said, beaming. "There are jolly excursions to be made, you know. You can either ride, or be carried in a hammock----" "I wonder if Mrs. Lenoir will care for the excursions!" "Well, if the seniors want to take it easy, we could do them together, couldn't we, Miss Wilson?" "To be sure we could," smiled Winnie. "More rugs and cushions for you! Won't it be what you call fatigue duty?" "I'll take it on," he declared. "I don't shirk work in a good cause, you know." One thing about him surprised Winnie, while it also pleased her. Obviously he considered her witty. She had never been accustomed to take that view of herself. Cyril Maxon would have been amazed at it. Though Stephen Aikenhead now and then gave her credit for a hit, her general attitude towards him was that of an inquirer or a disciple, and disciples may not becomingly bandy witticisms with their masters. Because Bertie Merriam visibly enjoyed--without attempting to equal--her fencing, she began to enjoy it herself. Nay, more, she began to rely on it. No less than her staggering _tu quoque_ to the male sex, it might serve, at a pinch, to quiet a qualm of conscience. "I can always keep him at his distance." That notion in her mind helped to minimize any scruples to which his admiration, the expedition, the excursions, the rugs and the cushions, might give rise. For if fencing can accord permission, it can surely also refuse it? If the Merriams were anything in this world, they were gentlemen. In matters of the heart a gentleman need not be very clever to take a hint; he feels it.