"No, because she can't. She jeered me when I was a poor candidate, and I vowed revenge."
"I should say revenge lay in the other direction," remarked Cherry.
"Not for her. She's been on tiptoe to rope me in, ever since I wore chevrons. I did half think I would teach her a lesson when I got to be first captain."
"Oh, Magnus, don't!"
"Why not?"
"Because she is a woman," said Cherry earnestly. "Oh, Magnus, help even the silly people, if you can. I've been thinking so much lately of the dear Lord's words: 'Ye are the salt of the earth.' Don't you know how salt gives strength and character to even things tasteless and ready to spoil?"
Magnus bent down, reverently touching his lips to the hand he held.
"It's a pledge," he said. "I'll let Miss Flirt alone; help her, if I can. But Cerise, I only said thought. And I have not thought it any more since I have seen you again. You are certainly that salt, for me."
"How did the class supper go off?" Cherry inquired, changing the subject. "You were full of it when you wrote last."
"It went off," said Magnus soberly. "The crowd was there. And some of the crowd were too full of it afterwards. Don't speak about that; I'd like to forget it."