receive a bite from a pup, and she stood her ground,
her eyes challenging his fearlessly.

"So you are like that!" he said thoughtfully. "It was a good one, and
you meant it, too."

"Decidedly!" she answered. "There's more where that came from!"

"As I was telling the Grays this afternoon! Good for you!" He sat down
again composedly, while she glared at him. "I'm still hungry. I've had
wine enough; but would you cut me another slice of bread?"

She cut another slice and he covered it generously with jam. Then little
Clarissa Eileen entered and pressed against her mother's skirts,
subjecting Stransky to childhood's scrutiny. He waved a finger at her
and grinned and drew his eyes together in a squint at the bridge of his
nose, making a funny face that brought a laugh.

"Your child?" Stransky asked Minna.

"Yes."

"Where's her father? Away fighting?"

"I don't know where he is!"

"Oh!" he mused. "Was that blow for him at the same time as for me?" he
pursued thoughtfully.

"Yes, for all of your kind."

"M-m-m!" came from between his lips as he rose. "Would you mind holding
out your hand?" he asked with a gentleness singularly out of keeping
with his rough aspect.

"Why?" she demanded.

"I've never studied any books of etiquette of polite society, and I am a
poor sort at making speeches, anyhow. But I want to kiss a good woman's
hand by way of apology. I never kissed one in my life, but I'm getting a
lot of new experiences to-day. Will you?"

She held out her hand at arm's length and flushed slightly as he pressed
his lips to it.

"You certainly do cut thick slices of bread," he said, smiling. "And you
certainly are pretty," he added, passing out of the door as jauntily as
if he were ready for another fight and just in time to see the colonel
of the regiment come around the house. He stood at the salute, half
proudly, half defiantly, but in nowise humbly.

"Well, Major Dellarme!" was the colonel's greeting of the company
commander.

"Major?" exclaimed Dellarme.

"Yes. Partow has the power. Four of the aviators have iron crosses
already and promotion, too; and you are a major. Company G got into a
mess and the whole regiment would have been in one unless you held on.
So I let you stay. It all came out right, as Lanstron planned--right so
far. But your losses have been heavy and here you are in the thick of it
again. Your company may change places with Company E, which has had a
relatively easy time."