Shortly before the noon recess, Percival returned from the Doraine. By this time, the news had spread through the camp that there was to be a wedding. Every one he met hailed him with the excited question:
“Say, have you heard the news?”
“What news?”
“There's going to be a wedding.”
“Good Lord!” said Percival to himself. “They must have been peeping through those windows after all.”
Finding that he had ten minutes to spare before school was out, he decided to call upon Mrs. Spofford. That lady received him with icy politeness.
“I have been expecting you,” she said. “Your friend Mr. Shay honoured us with a visit yesterday. My niece is at the school. Will you sit down and wait for her, or—”
“I beg your pardon. What was that you said about Shay?”
“I said he came to see us.”
Percival stared, “He did?”