few
less!"

From the targets, over which he was now bending in feverish interest,
she glanced up at him without being observed, her face somewhat puzzled.
She felt extremely gratified that Jeb had made these perfect scores, and
her spirit thrilled with his martial fervor; but, on the other hand, he
had just been talking about a certain question which she had evaded two
years ago by running away to take a hospital course in nursing, and it
seemed to her that he was dismissing it rather abruptly. Yet she knew
Jeb's temperament, as any girl will know a man with whom she has been a
play-fellow since childhood; and, although hardly prepared for it just
at this moment, she read aright that his love of self, his thirst for
praise, had in no wise diminished. Had she been asked for a direct
answer she could have told that his enthusiasm for target practice in
the woods, where for hours he pretended to be shooting Germans, was
vital to his abnormally active imagination; for Jeb, although a giant in
strength and a god in grace, possessed the brow and eyes of an
inveterate dreamer.

Formerly his dreams had run to adventure of a milder form, sometimes to
verse, once or twice or thrice or more to love. He had, as a matter of
fact, for short periods loved nearly all the girls in Hillsdale who were
pretty enough, and clever enough; never becoming really serious--unless
it was with her! But she had laughed at him then, sympathetically and
sweetly, reminding him that they had grown up together, besides being
each of them twenty-four.

Not that she believed these were serious obstacles, but at the time
they served; for, if the strict truth be told, Marian understood Jeb too
well to confess how much she cared. His exceptional charm, fascinating
her beyond anything she had experienced, was, on the other hand, marred
by his inordinate vanity. His extreme courtesy, urban manner and quick
instinct for thoughtful attentions to old and young alike, she read
truly as superficial, rather than sincere, kindnesses. The casual
acquaintance would not have discovered this--but Marian had grown up
with him! She _could_ love him, she had more than a hundred times told
herself--God, yes! Alone in the nights when his warm bronze coloring of
perfect health seemed near to her, she had admitted this. Yet by day she
laughed at it; and laughed at Jeb. Thereupon Jeb had settled down in
earnest to win her.

Miss Sallie and Miss Veemie had watched through a