"She's annoyed by all this gossip about her and Warry. She doesn't know that Wheaton is supposed to have taken more than a friendly interest in her." "Well, I wouldn't tell her that, if I were you--if Wheaton didn't." "Of course he didn't!" "Well, he didn't then." The syphon hissed into the glass. "Evelyn and Warry weren't engaged," said Mrs. Whipple. The general held up the glass and watched the gas bubbling to the top. "It's just as well that way," he said. "It saves her a lot of heartache." "That's what I think," said Mrs. Whipple promptly. In such conversations as this she usually combated the general's opinions. An exception to the rule was so noteworthy that he began to pay serious attention. "They weren't, but they might have been. Is that it?" "No. Anything might have been. There's no use speculating about what can't be now." "I suppose that's true. Well?" "Something is troubling Evelyn, and I'll tell you what I think it is. I think it was Saxton all along." "I always told you he was a good fellow. He's really shown me some attentions, and that's more than most of the young men have done, except Warry. Warry was nice to everybody. But Saxton's alive and hearty and hasn't skipped for parts unknown. Why is Evelyn mourning?" He shook the glass until the ice tinkled pleasantly. "I don't know. Maybe--maybe he doesn't understand!" "He isn't stupid," said the general, thoughtfully. "Of course he isn't." "It may be that he isn't interested--that she doesn't appeal to him. Such a thing is conceivable." "No, it isn't! Of course it isn't!" The general laughed at her scornful rejection of the idea. "You tell me, then." "What I think is, that there is some reason--perhaps some point of honor with him--that keeps him away from her. He was Warry's friend. He was nearer Warry in his last years than any one. Don't you think that something of that sort may be the matter?" The general was greatly amused, and he laughed so that Mrs. Whipple's own dignity was shaken. "Amelia," he said, "your analytical powers are too sharp for this world. You're shaving it down pretty fine, it seems to me. I wish you'd tell me what you base that on." "I'm not basing it; but it seems so natural that that should be the way." The syphon gurgled harshly and sputtered, and the general put it down sadly. "Now that you've solved the riddle in your own mind, how are you going to proceed? You'd better not try army tactics on a civilian job. Saxton isn't a second lieutenant, to be regulated by the commandant's wife." "He's a dear!" declared Mrs. Whipple irrelevantly. "If Evelyn Porter wants him, she's going to have him."