"Then we'll do our best to pull him up—together. But it's a secret, mind you!"

"Oh, Gee—" she began again.

"A secret, remember! Good-bye!"

He held out his hand. She clasped it swiftly.

"By golly, Major—you're—" she exclaimed rapturously.

"That'll do!" he answered. "Good-bye."

"I wonder what he really is?" he asked himself, when the girl had gone. "Sound at heart or—?"

"Well, I'll spare him for a bit," he decided. "Till he really does kick over the traces."

But something soon altered that resolution.

III