"My cousin Preston—Preston Gary. He is here."
"Here?" repeated the doctor.
"Yes—he is a cadet—didn't you know it? He has been here a long while; he has only one more year, I believe. How can we find him, Dr. Sandford?"
"I am ignorant, Daisy."
"But we must find him," I said, "for of course he will want to see me, and I want to see him, very much."
The doctor was silent, and I remember an odd sense I had that he was not pleased. I cannot tell how I got it; he neither did nor said anything to make me think so; he did not even look anywise different from usual; yet I felt it and was sure of it, and unspeakably mystified at it. Could Preston have been doing anything wrong? Yet the doctor would not know that, for he was not even aware that Preston was in the Military Academy till I told him.
"I do not know, Daisy," he said at last; "but we can find out. I will ask Captain Southgate or somebody else."
"Thank you," I said. "Who are those, Dr. Sandford, those others dressed in dark frock coats, with bright bars over their shoulders?—like that one just now going out of the gate?"
"Those are officers of the army."
"There are a good many of them. What are they here for? Are there many soldiers here?"