no right to butt in on us," the boy protested gloomily.

"But he's here, and you must be civil to him. Think how much older he is
than you are, and you're quarreling with him as if he were your own
age."

"Oh, I'll be civil to him if he'll only can his grouch. Why, he got sore
with me for kidding him about his age, yet you noticed how old he is
yourself."

"He isn't old, Billy. Why, he's younger than Mr. Huntington, isn't he?"

"Perhaps he is; but Uncle Monty always makes you feel that he's your own
age. I never think of him any differently than I do of any of my other
pals. But Mr. Cosden--ugh!"

"I know, Billy; but you don't want to say anything that will queer you
with your uncle, do you?"

Billy looked at her quizzically before he replied, then his broad,
good-natured grin replaced the frown.

"I get you, Stevie--what's the feminine for Steve, anyhow? You mean that
a fellow ought not to make _pate de foie gras_ out of the goose that
lays the golden eggs.--Say, Merry, you're wonderful, you are,--simply
wonderful!"

* * * * *

IX

* * * * *

On their return from the Barracks Mrs. Thatcher and Edith Stevens left
the men on the piazza and went up-stairs for the ostensible purpose of
lying down, but with that ease with which two women change their plans
when once alone they found themselves sitting in Marian's room, engaged
in a heart-to-heart conversation.

"I really think he might do," Edith remarked, a propos of nothing.

As Mrs. Thatcher was intimately acquainted with Edith's mental processes
the remark was more intelligible than might have been expected.

"You don't mean Philip Hamlen?"

Edith laughed. "No; you warned me off of him yesterday. I mean Mr.
Cosden."

"At it again?" Marian laughed. "Edith, you are absolutely incorrigible!
It has been so long since you have played ducks and drakes with a man
that I really believed you had reformed. You are old enough to know
better!"

"I presume it will be the same with him as with the others," Edith
sighed. "That is my great weakness, I admit: I like a man just so long,
and then he bores me stiff. I don't see how a married woman stands it
to have only one man around her all the time. If you were as honest as I
am you would admit that it would be a relief to you, every now and then
if you could pour out your breakfast coffee with some one else sitting
in front of you instead of H