Was it like a good servant to listen to slighting talk about his Master's laws? To be silent when the Name that is above every name was lightly spoken? Could he not rise and go from any company? How long would he be quiet if his mother's name was handled so? He did always wince, he was glad to remember, but who had been the wiser? "Not even a poor little storm flag!" he said bitterly to himself. "And these are but catspaws that come to me." Magnus turned over on his elbow, and looked across to the flagstaff, where the colours were having a lively time in the breeze; looked and looked, his eyes growing very grave, his lips firm. "You're worth a half hundred of me, old comrade," he said, with a reverent wave of his cap. What was that his mother had said in her last letter? "Thou, therefore, my son, endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Turning back after a while to his former position, Magnus found himself face to face with a pile of muslin and lace, of which Miss Saucy was the fair centre. She stood a little away, gazing pensively at him, her white kids clasped in what might be either entreaty or dismay. "Oh, there's nothing the matter, is there?" she said. "I was _so_ afraid you'd had a sunstroke, or something. And you know you promised me a walk this morning." "Did I?" "Yes, and it's very rude of you to forget it." "Well, it is not too late for the walk," said Magnus, slipping the little book up his sleeve, and putting himself by the young lady's side. "Which way?" "Round the plain. I mustn't get out of sight, because I have to walk with Mr. Chapman at twelve." "'Have to' expresses it." "You shan't make fun of him," said Miss Saucy. "Of course, he's not some people,--but then he never forgets his walks, which some people do. What was that book you were studying?" "Regulations." "Blue book?" "No, white." "Then it was the black one. Boning discipline! I don't believe it. Not you." Magnus bowed. "Let me see, then," she said. "I know it's just some old thing with a love letter inside. Give it to me!" Magnus drew out the little book and handed it over, but Miss Saucy was a very bewildered girl indeed, as she turned the pages. "_What?_" she said. "I can't make head or tail of this thing. What sort of stuff is it, anyhow?" "Stuff that will wear."