It was not to be supposed that amid such breezes Magnus Kindred could keep himself unfanned. To give him his due, he had no particular taste for flirting, and did not often mean it; he was too earnest a fellow to like half-way measures, or to go into anything only skin-deep. And I think his own blessed cluster of womankind at home had set the standard too high for him to enjoy drawing a girl on to be silly, even if it was amusing to see. He had also not much taste for talking unmitigated stuff, or much knack at doing it, and at this time of his existence would have nearly endorsed Mr. Weller's words:
"Wot's the use o' calling a young 'ooman a Wenus? Just as well call her a griffin, or a king's arms."
But the gales that stirred about West Point just then were very perfume-laden; and almost any woman might seem like an angel, when you first come out of the double shadow of pleb year and barracks, where tactical officers were your chief glimpses of the outside world.
The soft, "Mr. Kindred, I saw you coming clear across the plain," smoothed down very pleasantly the plumage which had been so roughly stroked the wrong way. The "Tac" might have reported those very bell buttons that very day as in need of rubbing up; but if Miss Flyaway could see them as soon as the man left camp, you perceive it took off the effect.
In matters of discipline, however, and of military precision Magnus was, on the whole, a careful fellow (Rig spelled it "lucky"), and so when other men had their freedom tied up, he was often detailed to walk with the friend or the cousin and give her "a good time." Thus he came in for rather more than his share of sweets.
It was charming to wander almost anywhere in those fair days, and well nigh as good to lie in the shadow of the trees about Fort Clinton, with a book or without. The "without" was Rig's style.
"Kin—I'm no end comfortable!" he declared one day, lying back on the green with his arms above his head.
"Same at same," responded Magnus, from behind his home newspaper. Rig suddenly sat up.
"Say, Kin, I want to go to artillery drill to-morrow night as chief of caissons."
"All right. If you're detailed for guard, shall I take the girl?"