up his card, and was summoned to his mother's room. He went.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. The clerk
stood there, apologetic but firm.

"I am very sorry, madam, but the regulations provide that your
son can visit you only in the parlor."

"But I am the wife of Major General Blank!" exclaimed the surprised
lady.

"But, Mrs. Blank, your son is a cadet, and subject to the regulations
on the subject. He must either go to the parlor at once, or leave
the hotel instantly. If he refuses to do either I am forced to
telephone to the tactical officer in charge."

The general's wife was therefore obliged to descend to the parlor
with her plebe son.

No other room but the parlor! This prohibition extends even to
the dining room. The cadet may not, under any circumstances,
accept an invitation from a friend or relative to take a sociable
meal with either.

"Tyrannous" and "needlessly oppressive," are terms frequently
applied by outsiders to the rules that hedge in cadets, but there
is a good reason behind every regulation.

Two or three minutes later a middle-aged woman came slowly down
the staircase, gazing about her. At last her glance settled,
with some bewilderment on Dick and Greg, who were the only two