to know
you think of returning. Jennie will also rejoice. It seems too good to
be true. Will Mr. Lawson also return?"

"Oh yes. In fact, I go to complete his work--to do penance for
neglecting him last summer." And in her tone, he fancied, lay a covert
warning, as though she had said: "Do not mistake me; I am not coming out
of interest in you."

He needed the word, for under the spell of her near presence and the
charm of her smile, new to him, the soldier was beginning to glow again
and to soften, in spite of his resolution to be very calm.

She went on: "I am genuinely remorseful, because Mr. Lawson has not been
able to bring his paper out as he had planned."

"I will see that you have every possible aid," he replied,
matter-of-factly. "The work must be done soon."

"How handsome he is!" the girl thought, as she studied his quiet face.
"His profile is especially fine, and the line of his neck and
shoulders--" an impulse seized her, and she said:

"Captain, I'd like to make a sketch of you. Could you find time to sit
for me?"

"That's very flattering of you, but I'm afraid my stay in Washington is
too short and too preoccupied."

Her face darkened. "I'm sorry. I know I could make a good thing of
you."

"Thank you for the compliment, but it is out of the question at present.
Next summer, if you come out, I will be very glad to give the time for
it. And that reminds me, you promised to show me your pictures when I
came, and your studio."

"Did I? Well, you shall see them, although they are not as good as I
shall do next year. One has to learn to handle new material. Your
Western atmosphere is so different from that of Giverney, in which we
all paint in Paris; then, the feeling of the landscape is so different;
everything is so firm and crisp in line--but I am going to get it!
'There is the mystery of light as well as of the dark,' Meunnot used to
say to us, and if I can get that clear shimmer, and the vibration of the
vivid color of the savage in the midst of it--"

She broke off as if in contemplation of the problem, rapt with question
how to solve it.

"There speaks the artist in you, and it is fine. But I'd like you to see
the humanitarian side of life, too," he replied.

"There is none," she instantly replied, with a curious blending of
defiance and amusement. "I belong to the world of Light and Might--"

"And I to the world of Right--what about that?"

"Light and Might make right."

"Your team