uld scarcely hear Miss Jennie's happy chatter, scarcely saw the
shaking curls, the eyes all but in a frenzy of rolling. His eyes were
in the back of his head, and his backward-listening ears heard only
Margaret's laugh behind him.

"Oh, I do love the autumn"--it was at the foot of those steps, thought
Chad, that he first saw Margaret springing to the back of her pony and
dashing off under the fir trees--"and it's coming. There's one scarlet
leaf already"--Chad could see the rock fence where he had sat that
spring day--"it's curious and mournful that you can see in any season a
sign of the next to come." And there was the creek where he found Dan
fishing, and there the road led to the ford where Margaret had spurned
his offer of a slimy fish--ugh! "I do love the autumn. It makes me
feel like the young woman who told Emerson that she had such mammoth
thoughts she couldn't give them utterance--why, wake up, Mr. Buford,
wake up!" Chad came to with a start.

"Do you know you aren't very polite, Mr. Buford?" Mr. Buford! That did
sound funny.

"But I know what the matter is," she went on. "I saw you look"--she
nodded her head backward. "Can you keep a secret?" Chad nodded; he had
not yet opened his lips.

"Thae's going to be a match back there. He's only a few years older.
The French say that a woman should be half a man's age plus seven
years. That would make her only a few years too young, and she can
wait." Chad was scarlet under the girl's mischievous torture, but a cry
from the house saved him. Dan was calling them back.

"Mr. Hunt has to go back early to drill the Rifles. Can you keep
another secret?" Again Chad nodded gravely. "Well, he is going to drive
me back. I'll tell him what a dangerous rival he has." Chad was dumb;
there was much yet for him to learn before he could parry with a tongue
like hers.

"He's very good-looking," said Miss Jennie, when she joined the girls,
"but oh, so stupid."

Margaret turned quickly and unsuspiciously. "Stupid! Why, he's the
first man in his class."

"Oh," said Miss Jennie, with a demure smile, "perhaps I couldn't draw
him out," and Margaret flushed to have caught the deftly tossed bait so
readily.

A moment later the Lieutenant was gathering up the reins, with Miss
Jennie by his side. He gave a bow to Margaret, and Miss Jennie nodded
to Chad.

"Come see me when you come to town, Mr. Buford," she called, as though
to an old friend, and still Chad was dumb, though he l