into full view again as he stood at
the end of the company street looking eagerly for its reappearance. And
then occurred a little thing that was destined to live in his memory for
many a day, and that thrilled him with a new and strange delight. He had
never been of the so-called "spooney" set at the 'Varsity. Pretty girls
galore there were about that famous institute, and he had danced at many
a student party and romped through many a reel, but the nearest he had
ever come to something more than a mere jolly friendship for a girl was
the regard in which he held his partner in the "Mixed Doubles," but that
was all on account of her exuberant health, spirits, general comeliness
of face and form, and exquisite skill in tennis. But this day a new and
eager longing was eating at his heart; a strange, dull pang seemed to
seize upon it as he noted in a flash that the seat that was to have been
his was occupied by an officer many years his senior, a man he knew only
by sight and an enviable reputation, a man whose soldierly, clear-cut
face never turned an instant, for his eyes were fixed upon a lovely
picture on the opposite seat--Amy Lawrence bending eagerly forward and
gazing with her beautiful eyes alight with sympathy, interest and frank
liking in search of the sorely disappointed young officer. "There he is!"
she cried, though too far away for him to hear, and then, with no more
thought of coquetry than a kitten, with no more motive in the world than
that of conveying to him an idea of her sorrow, her sympathy, her perhaps
pardonable and exaggerated indignation at what she deemed an act of
tyranny on part of his commander, with only an instant in which to
express it all--her sweet face flushed, her eyes flamed with the light of
her girlish enthusiasm and in that instant she had kissed her hand to
him. Colonel Armstrong, turning suddenly and sharply to see who could be
the object of interest so absorbing, caught one flitting glimpse of Billy
Gray lifting his cap in quick acknowledgment, and the words that were on
the tip of Armstrong's tongue the moment before were withheld for a more
auspicious occasion--and it did not come too soon.

It was only four days after that initial meeting in the General's tent
the foggy evening of the girl's first visit to camp, but both in town and
on the tented field there had been several young ladies. Junior officers
had monopolized the time and attention of the latter, but Armstrong was a