I saw you in uniform, Jeb, and
realized that you--that we might neither of us get back, then I
might--we might----"

She was looking down, unable to go farther without assistance; but he
offered none, and they stood for several moments in absolute
silence--for a quick spasm of fright had shot across his soul! The
sublimity of her partial surrender, contingent only upon his
transportation to a foreign battlefield, suddenly brought the war from
three thousand miles away to his very door. But his next feeling was one
of self-contempt, and squaring his shoulders with a jerk he said:

"I love your pluck! Then it's all settled."

"Oh, it isn't all settled by a great deal," she laughed; but, seeing his
face, gasped in mock astonishment. "Heavens! Which is making you look so
like a ghost--marriage or war?"

"They're quite synonymous," he replied, trying to match her banter. "May
I speak to your illustrious father?"

"That reminds me that I've an engagement with him right now," she
exclaimed. "For the present, you may say good-bye to Miss Sallie and
Miss Veemie for me."

With a pretty smile and toss of her head she swept him a little
courtesy, then turned to the gate, but he called after her:

"Wait! I'll go with you--and show him my targets!"

She stopped, looking back as though she had not heard aright.

"Targets?" she asked, slightly arching her brows.

"Why, these, of course," he cried, drawing them again from his breast
pocket. "I always hunt him up, or the Colonel, when I've made a
cracker-jack score! It tickles 'em to death!"

He sprang to the gate and held it open for her to pass, apparently
having forgotten everything but a desire to reap praise from one or the
other of these old gentlemen; who in their turns, although separately,
had never failed to be genially appreciative. The flavor of war, which
filled the air as a restless spirit since diplomatic relations with
Germany had come to an end--the numb fear with which he had been
obsessed but a moment ago--were completely relegated to the limbo of
forgetfulness as he now issued forth in search of praise wherewith to
feed his vanity.

Whenever it so happened that he failed to get a sufficient amount of
this from one or the other of these men, or from his adoring aunts, he
drew it from himself. He could not have named a night for months that he
had fallen asleep without first thinking of the splendid soldier he
would make. He would let his imagination run