e, for I haven't found Purdie."

Her eyes were dancing with mischief. "Harry, I believe you're out here
about the Crew Idol, too!"

He shook his head at her, smiling. "I wouldn't talk too much about that,
Flora. It flicks poor Purdie on the raw every time that--" His sentence
trailed off into something else, for Mrs. Purdie and Clara had come up.

The book had changed hands, together, evidently, with several
explanations, and Mrs. Purdie, with her foot on the carriage step, was
ready to make one of these over again.

"The major'll be so sorry. He's gone in town. It's so unusual for him to
get off at this hour, but he said he had to catch a man. As Mrs. Britton
and I were saying, he's likely to be very busy until this dreadful
affair is straightened out. If you can only wait a little longer, Mr.
Cressy," she went on, "I am expecting him every moment."

"Oh, it's of no importance," said Harry, but he looked at his watch with
a fold between his brows, and then at the car that was coming in.

"Well, at least, you'll have time to see the parade," said Mrs. Purdie.
"I always think it's a pretty sight, though most of the women get tired
of it."

Clara's face showed that she belonged to the latter class; but Flora,
too keenly attuned to sounds and sights not to be swayed by outward
circumstances, was content for the time to watch, in the cloud of dust,
the wheeling platoons and rhythmic columns.

Yet through all--even when she was not looking at him--she was aware of
Harry's restlessness, of his impatience; and as the last company swung
barrackward, and the cloud began to settle over the empty field, he
snapped his watch-case smartly, and remarked, "Still no major."

"Why, there he is now!" Mrs. Purdie screamed, pointing across the
parade-ground.

Flora looked. Half-way down on the adjoining side of the parallelogram,
back toward her, the redoubtable Kerr was standing. She recognized him
on the instant, as if he were the most familiar figure in her life. Yet
she was more surprised to see him here than she had been to see Harry.
She felt inclined to rub her eyes. It took a moment for her to realize
that his companion was indeed Major Purdie.

The major had recognized his wife's signaling umbrella. Now he turned
toward it, but Kerr, with a quick motion of hand toward hat, turned in
the opposite direction. In her mind Flora was with the major who ran
after him. The two men stood for a little, expostulating. Then both