"Yes; I—I heard you'd been in a fight. I—I wanted to read you a lecture. That's an awful eye you got, Mr. Ryan!"
"I'm sorry you don't like it, Miss Cora, but I had to; you'd have wanted me to if you'd known."
"Oh!" cried Cora, and her heart whispered: "Then it was about me, just as I thought, and the dear won't tell me." But aloud she said, "It ain't ever right to fight, an' I didn't think it of you, Mr. Ryan."
"I had to," he repeated awkwardly, and turned away. "Is that all you had ter say ter me? I must go back; but I thought Brown said that you had somethin' ter give me."
"Yes," said Cora in a very scared, small voice. "I have—me!"
"Cora! Do you mean it, girlie? Do you really mean it?" And two short but strong arms went round her. "But I ain't a sergeant yet, nor won't be for ever so long."
"Oh, Teddy!" said Cora, and hid her face right over his second button, "I ain't lovin' yer chevrons; I'm lovin' you."
Shorty received the joyous news in ominous silence. "When's the weddin'?" he demanded abruptly.
"Oh, sometime next month, I guess," said the proud husband-to-be.