"How do you know? If I am, I shall never fight for fear of being pointed at."
"But why?" Miss Lane repeated, her bright eyes searching his face. "Tell me quick, Mr. Kindred. They'll all be up here directly, and I cannot possibly wait to know till to-morrow. Why wouldn't you fight? I believe you could whip any man in the Corps."
"There is one rule," said Magnus, meeting her look, "which I have sworn to keep. It is an old rule, and a short one, but it covers a great deal of ground. 'Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.' I could not so endorse my acceptance of a challenge."
The girl looked at him with wide open eyes.
"You will find those old rules of yours terribly in the way, sometimes," she said.
"Sure sign that I am off the track, then," said her companion, smiling. "Fences don't matter when you mean to keep the road. But doubtless most good things have their inconvenient side."
"Aunt Newcomb, for instance," said Miss Lane, changing her tone. "I think I should count both sides 'inconvenient,' if I had to pull her up the hill. By the way, Mr. Kindred, why didn't your rule oblige you to take the brunt of the burden to the last?"
"It might in some cases," said Magnus; "not in this. Clinker had to earn his lunch, and there was no other way for him to do it."
"Well, there they come," said Miss Lane, rising up, "to cut short our talk; I am quite sorry. You interest me, Mr. Kindred; cadets with 'views' are a novelty. But I rather wish you would fight!"
"I dare say I could get a broken head in the riding-hall some day, when I'm on Dangerfield—would that do?" said Magnus, laughing back at her as he went forward to give Mrs. Newcomb a hand, which was gratefully taken.