PARADE REST IN CAMP
Mrs. Ironwood and her fan at once absorbed the window, the two girls stood shyly behind her; and back and forth before their eyes went the slim grey figures in the area. Some who knew Mrs. Ironwood and doffed their caps to her gave just a swift second glance at the two new faces. For a cadet never stares, or does it so surreptitiously from under his visor that nobody knows.
But the minutes seemed long. Mrs. Ironwood's fan plied back and forth, the girls stood watching.
"What makes them all look just alike?" said Violet. "I should say that man has been across six times already." Mrs. Ironwood laughed.
"Maybe he has," she said. "You'll bring the chaos to order in a day or two. Look very monotonous, don't they? I suppose you'll not even know Magnus when he comes."
But a little cry from both the girls answered that. Another grey figure came hurrying across the open space, swung his cap high in air beneath the window, and came tearing up the stairs.
After the first words, Mrs. Ironwood went back to her seat, and left them to themselves, interviewing at more length some of her friends below; but then she made a move.
"We must get out of here," she said. "There come more bonnets, and there'll be more cadets, and we shan't have standing room."
"When the bugle blows," said Magnus. "I can't leave here till four o'clock. But it's close on that now."