sse, no
_savoir faire_ where women are concerned. If he is in earnest let him
try weapons more compelling than his _beaux yeux_. A man was not given
lips and a pair of hands for eating and fighting merely; and if he
cannot turn them to good account, he deserves the fate that will
assuredly be his."

Quita's sigh, as she turned impatiently away, may have arisen from a
passing thought of that other, who had also been remiss in putting lips
and hands to their legitimate use, and had reaped disaster accordingly.
She took off her helmet, as if suddenly aware of its weight, and tossed
it into a chair.

"Is Miss Mayhew giving you another sitting after our sunrise picnic, on
Dynkund, to-morrow?" she asked in a changed voice.

"Yes, and I intend that she shall stay on for tiffin also."

"Then I will persuade Major Garth to follow suit, so that we may be a
_parti carre_. And now, as it's more than half-past breakfast-time, we
might begin to think about sitting down! I believe Major Garth is
riding up this morning with some books I lent him, and I must get
forward a little with my picture before he comes."

"His office hours seem to have become a negligible quantity lately,"
Maurice remarked casually, his eyes on Elsie's face.

"Yes, I told him so a few days ago, apparently without much effect.
Major Garth is one of those men who combine a maximum of pleasure and a
minimum of work with the capacity for securing good appointments, which
is quite an achievement--of its kind. I suppose I must gently point
out to him that now the station is waking up it would be well to
consider the proprieties a little more than we have done so far; or the
'Button Quail' will be forbidding Elsie the house. She is volubly
disapproving already, denounces him as a 'dangerous man' . . .
delectable adjective! But the cackle of Quails is nothing to me. So
long as the man behaves himself, and amuses me, I shall continue to see
just as much of him as I think fit."

Major Garth, it may be mentioned in passing, had lately secured the
coveted post of Station Staff Officer. He also had spent the winter
months in Dalhousie; and he could by no means be reckoned among the men
who fail with women through undue fastidiousness in regard to ways and
means.

CHAPTER IV.

"A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings
shall tell the matter."--_Eccles_.

"Tired already? Nonsense! The air at this height is pure elixir
v