"May we sit on the piazza after we come back? Or must we go to bed, too?" asked Violet.
"Sit there? Yes. Must you go to bed? No. Sit there and gaze at the barracks till shutting up time comes, and then go upstairs and carry it on from your window. You're not obliged to go to bed at all, while you are at West Point. Who's coming to-night?"
"Magnus, of course, and Mr. Trueman. And Mr. McLean said he would, if he could."
"Three for two girls; you begin well. There, they are coming out, and you can go stand at the fence, and I can go to my bed."
"Why should we stand at the fence?"
"'Mahomet and the mountain,'" said Mrs. Congressman. "Bell buttons cannot come any nearer, without a special permit."
"But I do not like that," said Violet, drawing back. "You know you bade us not. It looks as if we were waiting for somebody."
"Silly girl! That is just what you are doing: now isn't then. Come, I'll see you safe to the fence."
So under that broad, protecting shadow the girls went down the walk; shy, and glad, and expectant, and just a trifle afraid; for were there not four dark figures coming rapidly across the plain? It was all so strange and entrancing; the straight shadows, the measured step.
"Ah, here you are!" cried Magnus. "Good-evening, Mrs. Ironwood."