"Unless he's in the hospital."
"In the hospital!"
"He ought to be, if he's not eating his dinner. Might have sprained his ankle, dismounting too fast. Might have swallowed too much of Miss Somebody's cake."
But both these ideas were summarily dismissed.
"He is in there, of course," Rose said, her eyes full, and her heart wafting a blessing to the unseen brother; and with one consent the girls kissed their hands to the old grey building.
"Now, children," said Mrs. Congressman as they jolted on, "I must tell you one thing. This is all very well, tucked away in the 'bus with me; but never do you kiss hands to anybody at West Point, under other circumstances. There are always cadets lurking round in the bushes, and they'll think you mean them."
How the girls laughed! Whether because they had just been so near Magnus, or at this image of an ambush of other cadets, or the faint spice of danger in the air, or the general culmination; but even the quiet Rose came down from her dignity, and the omnibus rattled up to the hotel with a chorus of fun inside.
The needs of life are helpful and calming. Washing the dust off quiets one down, and prosaic dinner brings back one's sober senses. It was an extremely demure pair of girls that followed Mrs. Congressman into the dining-room, and gave earnest heed while she ordered dinner, surveyed the guests, scolded the waiter, and praised the soup.
"You must eat, girls," she said. "Build yourselves up for what's before you. I suppose this is the last quiet minute we shall have to ourselves till we go away."
"What is to happen to us?" said Violet merrily.