"Where _does_ Mr. Kindred go every Saturday?" Miss Berry demanded of Rig one day. "You know I'm visiting at the corner house, and can watch both ways. But while I'm running from one window to the other, he always contrives to vanish; and I never can tell into which house." "Of course I cannot say, Miss Jo," Rig answered, "because you know I never get round the corner. The minute I see you watching for me, I stop and come in." "Watching for you! I think I see myself," said Miss Berry. "You'll see something very sweet, when you do," said Rig politely. "It'll be something pretty sour, if you're not careful," retorted Miss Berry. "But say--I'm awfully curious to know. Where does he go most, Saturdays?" "Why, nowhere, to visit, they say," said the hostess. [Illustration: CADET ROOM IN BARRACKS] "Isn't there someone he cares about out West, Mr. McLean?" "He has two charming sisters." "Oh, of course!--all you cadets have charming sisters," said Miss Jo impatiently. "Anybody else?" "Lots of girls there," Rig replied. "They haven't all come East by several." "What do Western girls look like?" "Angels, some of 'em," said Rig, thinking of Violet's eyes. "Did you see Mr. Kindred's best girl?" "I rather suspect I saw three of them," Rig answered slowly. "Three! Why, the man's a Turk. Wasn't one better than the other?" "I thought so," said Rig. "It's a matter of opinion, I suspect." "Oh, shut up!" said Miss Jo, with beautiful ease of manner. "It's no more possible to get the truth out of a cadet, than----" "Than to get it without him," suggested Rig. "I'll get at it somehow, you'd better believe," said Miss Jo. "What were these three girls called?" "One of them seemed to have a sort of French title; the other two answered to plain English." "French--that's a likely story. What do you know about French?" "Not much," Rig confessed. "Don't be hard on me, Miss Jo. I expect to be found in January, but you might leave a fellow hopes till then." "And you will _not_ tell us a thing about Mr. Kindred," joined in another girl. "Well, now"--said Rig,--"that's putting it rather strong. But here comes Kin himself; he ought to know. He's of age, ask him, as the Jews said in the Bible." And Mr. McLean stepped to the window and hailed his friend, who had not had the faintest intention of calling upon anybody that afternoon. However, so summoned, there was nothing else to do. So Magnus came in, hung up his cap in the hall, shook hands with his hostess and the other ladies, and then, after the manner of cadet chaff, asked Rig what he was fooling there for? wasting his own time as well as Miss Jo's? "She said she hadn't any to lose, so I'm safe there," answered Mr. McLean. "Make the most of it,--that won't carry you far," said Miss Jo. "What _do_ you suppose he has been doing, Mr. Kindred?" "Could not guess--when it is Rig." "Absolutely quoted the Bible to me. I came so near fainting away that he called you in for a tonic."