t of adversaries."

A moment's pause. Then, with cheeks still red, and plucking at the rope
netting with nervous fingers, Miss Nan essays a tentative. Her eyes are
downcast as she asks,--

"I suppose you mean Mr. Stanley?"

"The very man, Nanette; very much of a man to my thinking."

The bronzed soldier standing near cannot but have heard the name and the
words. His face takes on a glow and the black eyes kindle.

"Mr. Stanley would not say to _me_ that Willy is to blame," pouts the
maiden, and her little foot is beating impatiently tattoo on the deck.

"Neither would I--just now--if I were Mr. Stanley; but all the same, he
decidedly opposed the view that Mr. Lee was 'down on Billy,' as your
mother seems to think."

"That's because Mr. Lee is tactical officer commanding the company, and
Mr. Stanley is cadet captain. Oh! I will take him to task if he has
been--been----"

But she does not finish. She has turned quickly in speaking, her hand
clutching a little knot of bell buttons hanging by a chain at the front
of her dress. She has turned just in time to catch a warning glance in
Uncle Jack's twinkling eyes, and to see a grim smile lurking under the
gray moustache of the gentleman with the Loyal Legion button who is
leading away the tall young lady with the dark hair. In another moment
they have rejoined the third member of their party,--he who first
withdrew,--and it is evident that something has happened which gives
them all much amusement. They are chatting eagerly together, laughing
not a little, although the laughter, like their words, is entirely
inaudible to Miss Nan. But she feels a twinge of indignation when the
tall girl turns and looks directly at her. There is nothing unkindly in
the glance. There even is merriment in the dark, handsome eyes and
lurking among the dimples around that beautiful mouth. Why did those
eyes--so heavily fringed, so thickly shaded--seem to her familiar as old
friends? Nan could have vowed she had somewhere met that girl before,
and now that girl was laughing at her. Not rudely, not aggressively, to
be sure,--she had turned away again the instant she saw that the little
maiden's eyes were upon her,--but all the same, said Nan to herself, she
_was_ laughing. They were all laughing, and it must have been because of
her outspoken defence of Brother Will and equally outspoken defiance of
his persecutors. What made it worse was that Uncle Jack was laughing
too.

"Do you know who