not such an undertaking as it
might otherwise have been, and Margaret looked forward to it with
eagerness.

CHAPTER XIX

The little party of escort arrived before school was closed on Friday
afternoon, and came down to the school-house in full force to take her
away with them. The young man Forsythe, with his sister, the hostess
herself, and a young army officer from the fort, comprised the party.
Margaret dismissed school ten minutes early and went back with them to
the Tanners' to make a hurried change in her dress and pick up her
suit-case, which was already packed. As they rode away from the
school-house Margaret looked back and saw Rosa Rogers posing in one of
her sprite dances in the school-yard, saw her kiss her hand laughingly
toward their party, and saw the flutter of a handkerchief in young
Forsythe's hand. It was all very general and elusive, a passing bit of
fun, but it left an uncomfortable impression on the teacher's mind. She
looked keenly at the young man as he rode up smiling beside her, and
once more experienced that strange, sudden change of feeling about him.

She took opportunity during that long ride to find out if the young man
had known Rosa Rogers before; but he frankly told her that he had just
come West to visit his sister, was bored to death because he didn't know
a soul in the whole State, and until he had seen her had not laid eyes
on one whom he cared to know. Yet while she could not help enjoying the
gay badinage, she carried a sense of uneasiness whenever she thought of
the young girl Rosa in her pretty fairy pose, with her fluttering pink
fingers and her saucy, smiling eyes. There was something untrustworthy,
too, in the handsome face of the man beside her.

There was just one shadow over this bit of a holiday. Margaret had a
little feeling that possibly some one from the camp might come down on
Saturday or Sunday, and she would miss him. Yet nothing had been said
about it, and she had no way of sending word that she would be away. She
had meant to send Mom Wallis a letter by the next messenger that came
that way. It was all written and lying on her bureau, but no one had
been down all the week. She was, therefore, greatly pleased when an
approaching rider in the distance proved to be Gardley, and with a
joyful little greeting she drew rein and hailed him, giving him a
message for Mom Wallis.

Only Gardley's eyes told what this meeting was to him. His demeanor was
grave an