"Quoted it pertinently?" "No, impertinently. Oh, Mr. Kindred, will you let me have a walk after chapel on Sunday?" "Certainly--but I cannot take you to get it." "I suppose that passes for cadet wit," said Miss Jo, pouting. "Why cannot you, pray?" "Something else to do: a previous." "You can't fool me so," said Miss Jo, shaking her flaxen head. "You _know_ your best girl isn't here." "What then?" "Then there is nobody else you need walk with. I think you're very unkind, Mr. Kindred. And I've got such a box of candy as _you_ never saw." "Let me see it now," said Magnus, smiling. "Destroy ignorance wherever you find it." "I guess I will! No, I'll give that walk to Mr. Clayton, and nobody else shall have a crumb." "Or a smile." "Good for Clayton," said Rig. "Then he won't have to dead-beat to the hospital Monday morning, but can go there for good and sufficient reasons." "Aren't you ashamed!--as if my candy was poison," said Miss Jo indignantly. "Mr. Kindred," said the hostess, "my curiosity is astir about this 'best girl' of yours; I should like to know your taste. What is she like?" "Like herself: I know nobody else," said Magnus. "So then she really does exist somewhere?" "Why, you asked about her." "Yes, of course I did; but then I didn't know but Mr. McLean had been fooling us." "Would he dare do that?" "It's my belief he fools about everything," said Miss Jo. "And you too. I don't think you cadets know how to be serious about a single thing." "Grinds _are_ almost the staff of life here," said Magnus. "But you do Rig unjustice: he'll be serious enough when he gets zero in wave motion." "Don't speak of wave motion Saturday afternoon," pleaded Rig. "It's the only time in the week when anything stands still and right side up. The air waves, and the light waves; and not a thing is steady, from Saturday night to Saturday noonday." "I hope you do not study wave motion on Sunday," said the hostess reprovingly. "Only practises it in chapel, you know," said Magnus. "Rig goes to sleep systematically, and keeps up in wave motion by a series of graceful nods." "Ha! ha!" laughed Rig. "Well, I sometimes do, that's a fact. Somebody stuck a pin into me last Sunday. Wasn't you, was it, Kin?" "It was not my pin. Come away, Rig, you've got another visit to pay before retreat," and the two bowed themselves out. "I don't believe I'll call on Miss Saucy to-day," said Rig, as they walked along. "I got thinking about your handsome sisters, and that takes the taste out of other girls." "Oh, does it!" said Magnus mockingly. "If you say that again, I'll report you to the Com. for a cannibal. There--the Kitten is tapping on the window for you, and you can go to Miss Saucy later. Run in; there's a lot of girls staying there." And Rig ran in. But in the hall, while giving himself those finishing touches in which even men indulge, Rig found that Cadet Kindred had slipped away to parts unknown. XL ON FORT PUT