cted that the young officer might meet his match in more ways than
one.

"She'll be in at noon," the Commander remarked. "Off riding with one of
the boys."

"Of course," Stuart sighed.

He began to scent a battle and his spirits rose. He went to his room,
took his banjo out of its old leather strapped case and tuned it
carefully. He made up his mind to give the young buck out riding with
her the fight of his life while there.

He heard the ring of the girl's laughter as she bade her escort goodbye
at the door. He started to go down at once and begin the struggle.
Something in the ring of her young voice stopped him. There was a joyous
strength in it that was disconcerting. A girl who laughed like that had
poise. She was an individual. He liked, too, the tones of her voice
before he had seen her.

This struck him as odd. Never in his life before had he liked a girl
before meeting her just for a tone quality in her voice. This one
haunted him the whole time he was changing his uniform.

He decided to shave again. He had shaved the night before very late. He
didn't like the suggestion of red stubble on his face. It might put him
at a disadvantage.

He resented the name of Beauty Stuart and yet down in his man soul he
knew that he was vain.

He began to wonder if she were blonde or brunette, short or tall, petite
or full, blue eyes or brown? She must be pretty. Her father was a man of
delicate and finely marked features--the type of Scotch-Irish gentlemen
who had made the mountains of Virginia famous for pretty women and
brainy men.

He heard her softly playing a piano and wondered how on earth they had
ever moved a piano to this far outpost of civilization. The cost was
enormous. But the motive of her father in making such a sacrifice to
please her was more important. His love for her must be unusual. It
piqued his interest and roused again his impulse for a battle royal with
another elusive daughter of his native state.

He made up his mind not to wait for the call to lunch. He would walk
boldly into the reception room and introduce himself. She knew he was
there, of course.

At the first sound of his footstep, her hand paused on the keys and she
turned to greet him, rising quickly, and easily.

The vision which greeted Stuart stunned him for a moment. A perfect
blonde with laughing blue eyes, exactly the color of his own, slim
and graceful, a smile that was sunlight, and a step that was grace
incarnate.