But by chance Lieutenant Martin and Nona Davis had a slight previous acquaintance. Lieutenant Martin was a native of Georgia, but had been educated at the Charleston Military Academy before going to West Point. In Charleston he had known some friends of Nona’s and had been introduced to her, meeting her, perhaps, only a few times afterward. For even as a boy, Jack Martin had been supposed to be either very shy or very disdainful of girls. He did not seem to have the least natural interest in them. Yet he really knew almost nothing of women, having been brought up by a bachelor uncle, who was himself a soldier, and this may have accounted for his ungraciousness.
Both he and Nona were surprised, upon seeing each other, into acknowledging their former acquaintance. Neither really intended it. Afterward, Lieutenant Martin had really regretted the accidental meeting, since it had drawn him into situations a little like the present one.
Hugh Kelley and he were on the railroad platform, when the sight of four American Red Cross nurses, standing together and apparently waiting to take the same train, had attracted their attention.
Yet introducing Hugh had been the real complication. He could scarcely be accused of disliking girls.
However, he continued to stand at the door of the compartment waiting for Lieutenant Martin as his superior officer to open the conversation and explain their presence.
“I, we,” Lieutenant Martin began stiffly, and then stopped, as if he never were to go on.
Then he turned to the younger man.
“Do, Kelley, speak for us both, won’t you? Give an excuse for our appearance. For if you are not an Irishman, with that name of yours, your ancestors surely were.”
Hugh Kelley laughed.
“Oh, the situation isn’t so serious; please don’t be alarmed. It is only that Lieutenant Martin is so in the habit of issuing commands lately that he does not know how to ask a favor. And it’s a favor I be after askin’,” Hugh continued, breaking into a fairly poor imitation of the Irish brogue, somewhat to Mollie Drew’s amusement.