"But he is our cousin. You boys must not fight," Belinda said soothingly, yet suddenly feeling that this rivalry between her cousins was no longer a matter to laugh at. "Remember, you have your corporal's stripes to lose. And if Paul is such a sly fox as you say, he would put you in the wrong light if you attacked him. Besides, it is wrong to fight."
"Donnerwetter!" gasped Carl, suddenly bursting into laughter. "And here we are at war!" He recovered his temper quickly. "A small pot soon hot," his Cousin Paul called him. "Ah, but Cousin 'Linda, I am a jealous one."
"You should not be," she told him rather absently.
"Yes! But you do not tell me that you care for me at all."
"I care for you a great deal, Cousin Carl, but not in the foolish way you suggest."
"Foolish!"
"Yes. We are too much like brother and sister. I could not by any possibility love you in the way you suggest," she said with sudden frankness.
"Ach! that Paul——"
"Hush! I love him not at all," she cried. "He is simply my cousin—as you are."
"Ah, 'Linda," the boy pleaded, "take time to think of it. Of course, any day I may be shot——"