"Her?" Mrs. Kindred repeated questioningly.
"Yes, any one of the girls," said Magnus. "You see, the winter journey is one thing; and then in the winter there's such a beastly lot of studying to do. And in the spring I shall be boning every minute. But wait till first-class camp. Or you might all come back with me from furlough—just for a first sight of the place."
"But my dear!" said Mrs. Kindred. "Why Magnus, you talk as if we had the Bank of England at our back."
"No, only me in front," said Magnus with a gleam of his bright eyes. "You don't suppose I am going to worry through the last two years here without a sight of you all? Wouldn't pay to bone rank if nobody came to see my chevrons. Just as well go on and get rattled like some of the rest of them."
"But my dear!" said poor Mrs. Kindred. "'Rattled' and 'bone' you've said twice. And you called your studies 'beastly.' I thought they taught English at West Point."
How Magnus laughed!
"There are Tacs over yonder," he said, "with a party of summer girls; and one of the girls offered me a lot of boodle. And the Com.'s out riding, and the Supe's gone to town, and the Arch-fiend is at the seaside."
"Now Charlemagne, stop!" said Mrs. Kindred. Magnus gave her another delighted hug.
"Oh mammy!" he said; "this is you, and no mistake. I didn't quite believe it was at first." And kissing first one hand and then the other, Magnus put them both back in her lap, and laid his cheek down upon them. The mother got one hand away and softly stroked the fine head.
"I do not understand about your hair, yet," she said.