FullReads

“Do you know who they are?” she demands, indignantly.

“Not I, Nan,” responds Uncle Jack. “Never saw them before in my life, but I warrant we see them again, and at the Point, too. Come, child. There’s our bell, and we must start for the gangway. Your mother is hailing us now. Never mind this time, little woman,” he continues, kindly, as he notes the cloud on her brow. “I don’t think any harm has been done, but it is just as well not to be impetuous in public speech. Ah! I thought so. They are to get off here with us.”

Three minutes more and a little stream of passengers flows out upon the broad government dock, and, as luck would have it, Uncle Jack and his charges are just behind the trio in which, by this time, Miss Nan is deeply, if not painfully, interested. A soldier in the undress uniform of a corporal of artillery hastens forward and, saluting, stretches forth his hand to take the satchel carried by the tall man with the brown moustache.

“The lieutenant’s carriage is at the gate,” he says, whereat Uncle Jack, who is conducting her mother just in front, looks back over his shoulder and nods compassionately at Nan.

“Has any despatch been sent down to meet Colonel Stanley?” she hears the tall man inquire, and this time Uncle Jack’s backward glance is a combination of mischief and concern.

“Nothing, sir, and the adjutant’s orderly is here now. This is all he brought down,” and the corporal hands to the inquirer a note, the superscription of which the young officer quickly scans; then turns and, while his soft brown eyes light with kindly interest and he bares his shapely head, accosts the lady on Uncle Jack’s arm,–

“Pardon me, madam. This note must be for you. Mrs. McKay, is it not?”

And as her mother smiles her thanks and the others turn away, Nan’s eager eyes catch sight of Will’s well-known writing. Mrs. McKay rapidly reads it as Uncle Jack is bestowing bags and bundles in the omnibus and feeing the acceptive porter, who now rushes back to the boat in the nick of time.

“Awful sorry I can’t get up to the hotel to see you,” says the note, dolorously, but by no means unexpectedly. “I’m in confinement and can’t get a permit. Come to the officer-in-charge’s office right after supper, and he’ll let me see you there awhile. Stanley’s officer of the day, and he’ll be there to show the way. In haste,

WILL.”

“Now isn’t that poor Willy’s luck every time!” exclaims Miss Nan, her blue eyes threatening to fill with tears. “I do think they might let him off the day we get here.”

“Unquestionably,” answers Uncle Jack, with great gravity, as he assists the ladies into the yellow omnibus. “You duly notified the superintendent of your impending arrival, I suppose?”

Mrs. McKay smiles quietly. Hers is a sweet and gentle face, lined with many a trace of care and anxiety. Her brother’s whimsical ways are old acquaintances, and she knows how to treat them; but Nan is young, impulsive, and easily teased. She flares up instantly.

“Of course we didn’t, Uncle Jack; how utterly absurd it would sound! But Willy knew we were coming, and he must have told him when he asked for his permit, and it does seem too hard that he was refused.”

“Heartless in the last degree,” says Uncle Jack, sympathetically, but with the same suggestive drawl. “Yonder go the father and sister of the young gentleman whom you announced your intention to castigate because he didn’t agree that Billy was being abused, Nan. You will have a chance this very evening, won’t you? He’s officer of the day, according to Billy’s note, and can’t escape. You’ll have wound up the whole family by tattoo. Quite a good day’s work. Billy’s opposers will do well to take warning and keep out of the way hereafter,” he continues, teasingly. “Oh–ah–corporal!” he calls, “who was the young officer who just drove off in the carriage with the lady and gentleman?”