, dark walled and paved with
silver. There was a lake with an island and a pavilion: Iona Island--too
beautiful to pass as we did pass; a bridge over a steep rocky gorge, and
a river-glimpse mysterious as the backgrounds of old Italian pictures.
But we turned away from it into woods--deep forests of cedars fragrant
as smoking incense, and at last--rather late because of side
wanderings--we came to Highland Falls.

I remember your telling me that your first love was a West Point cadet,
who proposed to you on your sixteenth birthday in "Flirtation Walk."
Lucky you! But this was my first glimpse of the place as we drove
through gates from Highland Falls into the Government Reservation. We
meant to arrive, shed the dust at our hotel, and then saunter forth for
dress parade, but instead of that we had to see the great sight of the
day sitting in our motors. The poor Hippopotamus did look antediluvian
among all the smart cars and carriages assembled! But the rest of us
weren't so bad, even after a day's run, and, anyhow, we had no time to
think of ourselves, there was too much else to think of.

I wonder if the place has changed much since that sixteenth birthday of
my Mercedes? Of course it's only a _very_ few years ago! Not being Aunt
Mary, I won't make any remark about the number. But if you haven't quite
forgotten that first love, doesn't it make your heart beat to think of
those great terraced, castellated buildings of gray stone massed against
the cliffsides above the sparkling river, almost Walhalla-like in
grandeur, of the gracious elms and the prim soldierly barracks draped
with ivy, of the vast parade ground and the wonderful grouping of
mountains whose shapes lie reflected far down under the crystal water,
Cro' Nest, haunted by the "Culprit Fay," and Storm King; and little
Constitution Island which tried its best to stop the British ships.

I wish a cadet had fallen in love with me! I wish one would do it now! I
adored them all as I sat in the motor watching the ranks of white-clad
figures moving to music and looking, in the late sunshine against their
green background, like hundreds of marble statues come alive. When they
stood to "attention" they were like snow men. Oh, and what music it was,
to which they moved! Jack said there couldn't be a scene of its kind
half so fine and picturesque anywhere else in the world. I felt quite
proud to have been born an American as I looked at it, and so, judging
from their e