"Oh, you goose," laughed Beatrice. "She meant I did it all the time; but you don't care, do you?"
"I don't know just what it is," said Robert, truthfully; "but if it's anything you do, I like it."
"There!" said the girl, in a tone of great satisfaction; "you see, don't you, Kit?"
"Yes," answered Mrs. Howard, "I see that you are incorrigible."
Forsyth was content to listen and to watch Beatrice as she sewed. Prosaic needles and thread assumed a mysterious charm in the dimpled hands of the girl he loved. Pretty frowns and troubled shadows flitted across her face as the thread knotted, twisted, or broke, as it frequently did, because she was not familiar with her task.
Ronald left Captain Franklin's and came across the parade-ground with a rapid stride. "Twelve o'clock!" he said, with a radiant smile. "You wouldn't think it, would you?" he added.
"I shouldn't have suspected it," answered Forsyth, with double meaning; "I must be going back."
"I'll go with you, Cousin Rob."
"Me, too," put in Ronald, joyously.
"You needn't," said the girl, coolly.