"Who is that with Uncle James?" she asked.
"The Commandant."
"My niece, Miss Grey. Colonel Beauregard, my dear. Let us walk up to the Point." The Commandant, who made good his name, took possession of the delighted young woman and carried her away to his home with Penhallow, leaving the cadet to return to his routine of duty. As they parted, he said, "I am set free to-morrow, Leila, at five, and excused from the afternoon parade. If you and Uncle Jim will walk up to Port Putnam, I will join you."
"I will tell Uncle Jim. You will be at the hop of course? I have been thinking of nothing else for a week."
"I may be late."
"Oh, why?"
"We are in the midst of our examinations. Even to get time for a walk with you and uncle was hard. I wrote Uncle Jim not to come now. He must have missed it."
"And so I am to suffer."
"I doubt the anguish," he returned, laughing, as he touched his cap, and left her to brief consideration of the cadet cousin.
"Uncle Jim might have been just like that—looked like that. They are very unlike too. I used to be able to tell just what Jack would do when we were children—don't think I can now. How tall he is and how handsome. The uniform is becoming. I wonder if I too am so greatly changed."