“Good Lord!” said the general suddenly. “The young devils! The—the young scamps! So that was it. Now look here, Peggy,” he said, bending forward with a twinkle. “I—well, I understand, I can’t explain, but it was just mischief. Your young man’s all right, though where he’s hiding——”
He broke off and chuckled.
“He is not at all the hiding sort.”
“Under certain circumstances, Peggy,” observed the general, “any man will hide—and should.”
Some time later, at approximately the hour when Sergeant Gray’s twenty-three and a half hours’ leave was up, the little car started for the city. It contained one anxious young lady, one general who rolled constant cigarettes and chuckled, and one aide on the folding seat in the back, rather resentful because there was no adequate place for his legs.
“I’m going along, Tommy,” the general had said. “It promises to be rather good, and I need cheering. Besides, under the circumstances, a member of Miss Peggy’s family——”
At the building on Twenty-second Street the general got out, leaving Peggy discreetly in the car. He was a large and very military figure, and he summoned the elevator man with a single commanding gesture.
“I want to know,” said the general fixing him with a cold eye, “whether you happened, yesterday afternoon, to have seen about here an enlisted man without a uniform?”
“I did,” said the elevator man unctuously.
“You did—what?”