lunch or dinner, so that she will be up in
everything and able to talk brilliantly to members of Parliament, or
stuffy old things in the House of Lords.

I calmed down somewhat after I'd recovered from the first shock of
seeing several islands entirely devoted to insisting that Uneeda
Biscuit, or a Cigar, or some other extraneous thing which you're sure
you _don't_ need in the least, and wouldn't buy even if you did when it
had been forced on you like that. There was so much to admire that it
seemed a shame to fret. Besides, it was soothing to sit on the yacht's
deck under a pale green awning, drinking what I call a lemon squash,
and Potter and Sally obstinately believe to be lemonade. While Mrs. Ess
Kay angrily read nasty paragraphs about herself, and hilariously about
her friends, in a regular highwayman of a paper, _Smart Sayings_, Sally
Woodburn told me charming legends of the Hudson; dear old Dutch things,
most of them, which had been made into plays and poems; and I was sorry
when we came to West Point at last.

But I wasn't sorry for long. The minute we got on shore at a quaint
little landing shoved incongruously in among beautiful wooded hills,
the most exquisite scents of ferns and trees, and sweet, moist earth
came hurrying down to welcome us. Eton is not more beautiful than West
Point; and as we drove up the hill under an arbour of trees, I saw that
the buildings cleverly contrived to look old and grey and picturesque,
like ours. The elms in a big green square past the top of the hill had
a venerable air, too, so they must have been precocious about growing,
for it doesn't stand to reason that West Point can be as ancient as
Oxford or Eton. But anyway, the elms were there, making an effect that
England couldn't improve on, and there were some grey stone barracks,
and a long line of officers' quarters built of wood and brick. I was
glad that we were to stop with Potter, instead of going to an hotel,
for I did want to see thoroughly what garrison life is like. Potter has
only half a house, though I suppose he's rich enough to buy up all West
Point if it were for sale; but he had got a chum of his, who lives in
the other half, to clear out of his part and give it to us for the day
and night.

Vic has been to Aldershot, and even to Malta and Gib. But I never have,
and I never saw any officers' quarters at home, so I don't know how
they compare with American ones. Potter's and his friend's are exactly
like a do