man stops to
swear when he is hit. It shows there are no morbid secretions."

"You prefer superficial outbreaks, Miss Mellen?" Frazer inquired, as
he handed Ethel her cup.

"Yes. They are far less likely to produce mortification later on,"
she answered, laughing up into his steady eyes. "What do you do,
when you are hit, Captain Frazer?"

"They call me Lucky Frazer, you know," he replied. "I've been in no
end of scrimmages, and I was never hit but once."

Bending over, Ethel turned back the cloth and thumped on the under
side of the table.

"Unberufen and Absit omen," she said hastily. "Don't tempt
Providence too far, Captain Frazer. At my coming-out reception, I
met a man who boasted that he always broke everything within range,
from hearts to china. Ten minutes later, he tripped over a rug and
fell down on top of the plate of salad he was bringing me. And he
didn't break a thing--"

"Except his own record," Weldon supplemented unexpectedly. "I
suspect he also broke the third commandment. The keeping of that and
the falling down in public are totally incompatible."

"And that reminds me, you were going to tell what Mr. Carew did when
he was hit," Ethel reminded him.

"I never tell tales, Miss Dent."

"But, really, how does it feel to be under fire?" she persisted.

"Ask Captain Frazer. He has had more experience than I."

She barely turned her eyes towards Frazer's face.

"He is talking to my cousin and won't hear. Were you frightened?"

"No."

"Truly? But you wouldn't confess, if you were."

He blushed at the mockery in her tone.

"Yes. Why not? I expected to be desperately afraid; but I was only
desperately angry."

"At what?"

"Nothing. That's the point. There was nothing in sight to be angry
at. Bullets came from nowhere in a pelting shower. Most of them
didn't hit anything; there was no cloud from which the shower could
come. One resented it, without knowing exactly why. It was being the
big fellow who can't hit back when the little one torments him."

"Cooee!"

The remonstrance was long-drawn and forceful. This time, Ethel
heeded.

"What is it, Alice?"

"Do you remember that, this noon, we agreed not to mention the war?
These men fight almost without ceasing. When they aren't fighting,
they do sentry and stables and things. This is an afternoon off for
them. We really must talk accordingly."

"What are you and Captain Frazer talking about?"

"Cricket and seven-year locusts."