tty and little. They heard the note of a bugle,
thin and silver clear, and they could see the tiny figures mustering;
but in her preoccupation it did not occur to Flora that they were
arriving just in time for parade. But when the carriage had crossed the
viaduct, and swung them past the acacias, and around the last white
curve into the white dust of the parade-ground, Clara turned, as if with
a fresh idea.

"Wouldn't you like to stop and watch it?"

"Why, yes," Flora assented. The brilliance of light and color, the
precision of movement, the sound of the brasses under the open sky were
an intermezzo in harmony with her spirited mood.

The carriage stopped under the scanty shadow of trees that bordered the
walk to the officers' quarters. Clara, book in hand, alertly rose.

"I'll just run up to the Purdies' and leave this," she said.

"Then she really did want to be rid of me," Flora mused, as she watched
the brisk back moving away; "and how beautifully she has done it!" Her
eyes followed Clara's little figure retreating up the neat and narrow
board walk, to where it disappeared in overarching depths of eucalyptus
trees. Further on, beyond the trees, two figures, smaller than Clara's
in their greater distance, were coming down. Flora almost grinned as she
recognized the large linen umbrella that Mrs. Purdie invariably carried
when abroad in the reservation, and presently the trim and bounding
figure of Mrs. Purdie herself, under it. The Purdies were coming down to
parade--at least Mrs. Purdie was. But the tall figure beside her--that
was not the major. She took up her lorgnon. It was--no it could not
be--yet surely it _was_ Harry! Lazy Harry, up and out, and squiring
Mrs. Purdie to the review at half-past ten in the morning! "Are we all
mad?" Flora thought.

The three little figures, the one going up, the two coming down, touched
opposite fringes of the grove--disappeared within it. On which side
would they come out together? Flora wondered. They emerged on her side
with Harry a little in advance. He came swingingly down the walk,
straight toward her, and across the road to the carriage, his hat
lifted, his hand out.

"Well, Flora," he said, "this is luck!"

"What in the world has got you out so early?" she rallied him.

"Came out to see Purdie on business, and here you are all ready to drive
me back."

"That's your reward."

He brushed his handkerchief over his damp forehead. "Well, there's one
coming to m