, when they should pass through the station gate.
A sudden tapping on the glass outside startled her, and the next
instant she was exclaiming excitedly to her elder brother, "Oh, quick,
Jack! Put up the window, please. It's Gay and Roberta! They're still
waiting out there!"

As the window flew up, and Mary's head was thrust out, passengers on
that side of the car saw two young girls standing on tiptoe to speak to
her. The one with beautiful auburn hair called out breathlessly, "Oh,
Mary! Bogey's coming! Pray that the train will stand one more minute!"
And the other, the one with curly lashes and mischievous mouth, chimed
in, "He's bringing an enormous box of candy! Mean thing, to come so late
that we can't have even a nibble!"

Then those looking out saw a young fellow in lieutenant's uniform sprint
through the gate, down the long station and across half a dozen tracks
to reach the place where Roberta and Gay stood like excited guide-posts,
wildly pointing out the window, and beckoning him to hurry. Red-faced
and panting, he brought up beside them with a hasty salute, just as the
wheels began turning and the long train started to puff slowly out of
the station. There was only time to thrust the box through the window
and hastily clasp the little gloved hand held out to him.

[Illustration: "THERE WAS ONLY TIME TO . . . HASTILY CLASP THE LITTLE
GLOVED HAND HELD OUT TO HIM."]

"Say good-bye to the others for me," he called, trotting along beside
the moving train. "Sorry I was late. I had a lot of things to tell you.
I'll have to write them."

"Do," called Mary, "and let me know--" But he was no longer in hearing
distance and the sentence was left unfinished.

When she drew in her head there was a deeper color in her face and such
shining pleasure in her eyes, that every fellow traveller who had seen
the little byplay, knew just what delight the lieutenant's parting
attention had given her. More than one watched furtively with a sort of
inward smiling as she opened the box and passed it around for the family
to share and admire.

One person, especially, found entertainment in watching her. He was the
elderly, spectacled gentleman in the section behind her. He was an
illustrator for a well-known publishing house, and Mary would have
counted her adventures well begun, could she have known who was sitting
behind her, and that one of his famous cover designs was on the very
magazine which lay open on her lap. Well for