Page sighed unconsciously. "Is this very good tea?" he asked, as they finally rose from the table. "I am not a connoisseur."
"I thought it must be. I never enjoyed any tea so much in my life."
"Then we are very much obliged to each other, aren’t we?" said Clover gayly, and consuming her watch, she reminded her companion again of the hour of the appointment, and they hastened away.
They arrived at the hospital steps just as the others were leaving.
"Oh, you loiterers," was Mildred’s greeting.
"Don’t you see our breathless condition?" returned Clover. "How can you have the heart to reproach us? How do you do, Mr. Eames? We are very grateful to you. What a hopeless throng that looks like!"
"Let me take some of those camp chairs," said Gorham, suiting the action to the word.
Mr. Eames led his party towards the officers’ tents. They had to force their way through serried ranks of gazers, who were held back with difficulty by the blue-coated sentinels from the camp of "regulars" near by. The sentinel saluted Eames as he passed, and the lieutenant stood still and allowed his friends to file before him to the reserved places before the officers’ tents. There they found Helen Eames, who welcomed them radiantly, fixing cordial eyes on Jack in a manner not lost upon Mildred. The latter did not enjoy this effusiveness. She did not wish to marry anybody, but at the same time she did not like to have any other girl try to appropriate her especial friends.
However, her attention was soon momentarily distracted by the novel sights before her, and the usual questions began to flow.
Eames was most willing to answer them. Before long the band marched out upon the plain, and the evening’s ceremonies had begun. The cadets, a shining assembly, marched forth from the company-streets and fell into line.
The band, playing The Thunderer, marched up and down the plain before the motionless ranks, and one to whom the West Point forms were familiar asked himself if it must not all be a dream. Here were the same camp, the same cadets, the same band; but where were the mountains, the huge old elms, the river?—instead, the Government Building, the Fisheries, the Battle-Ship, and Lake Michigan.
To Mildred the very sight of the band was not thrilling from all it implied, but she soon found herself absorbed in interest and admiration.