of June and all through July he resolutely
stood to his promise and did his best to be loving and brotherly to a
loving and devoted sister and dutiful to a most indulgent father. But he
grew white and worn and haggard, he who had been such a picture of rugged
health, and, in her utter innocence and ignorance as to the being on whom
her brother had lavished the wealth of his love, Mildred began to ask
herself should she not urge her father to let "Gov" return to America. At
last, one sweet July evening, late in the month, the brother and sister
were wandering along the lovely shore of Lucerne. He had been unusually
fitful, restless and moody all day. No letter had reached him in over a
fortnight, and he was miserably unhappy. They stopped at a grassy bank
that ran down to the rippling water's edge, and she seated herself on a
stone ledge, while in reckless abandonment he threw himself full length
on the dewy grass. Instantly the last doubt vanished. Bending over him,
her soft hand caressing his hair, she whispered: "Gov, dear boy, is it so
very hard? Would you like to go to her at once?"

And the boy buried his face in her lap, twined his arms about her slender
waist, and almost groaned aloud as he answered. "For pity's sake help me
if you can, Mildred, I'm almost mad."

Early in August the swiftest steamer of the line was splitting the
Atlantic surges and driving hard for home, with "Gov" cursing her for a
canal boat. The day after he reached New York he had traced and followed
the White Sisters to West Point, and Margaret Garrison stared in mingled
delight, triumph and dismay at the card in her hand. Delight that she
could show these exclusive Pointers that the heir to one of the oldest
and best names in Gotham's Four Hundred was a slave to her beck and call.
Dismay to think of the scene that might occur through his jealousy when
he saw the devoted attentions she received from so many men--officers,
civilians and cadets. Old Cashton came up now as regularly as Saturday
night came around--and there were others. Margaret Garrison was more
talked about than any woman in Orange County, yet, who could report
anything of her beyond that she was a universal favorite, and danced,
walked, possibly flirted with a dozen different cavaliers every day of
her life? There were some few among her accusers, demure and most
proper--even prudish--women, of whom, were the truth to be told, so
little could not be said.

"Gov" Prime took