[Illustration: THIS IS NOT A SCENE FROM A REVUE--IT IS HARDLY DULL
ENOUGH FOR THAT--BUT AN EVERYDAY PERFORMANCE ON THE PLATFORM OF ANY
RAILWAY STATION DURING THE RECENT COLD SPELL.]

* * * * *

A FORWARD MINX.

The garden wall was high, yet not so high but that any young lady bent
on attracting the notice of her neighbours could look over it. Miss
Dot indeed regarded an outside flight of steps which led to an upper
storey as an appointed amelioration to the hours which she was
expected to spend in the garden, for it was an easy scramble from the
stairs to the top of the wall, whence she could survey the world. To
be sure the wall was narrow as well as high, but a timorous gait shows
off a pretty figure, and slight nervousness adds a pathetic expression
to a pretty face; to both of which advantages Dot was not, it is to be
believed, altogether indifferent when khaki coats dwelt the other side
of that wall.

On this particular day she was trying to attract notice in so
unrestrained a manner that her mother remarked it from an upper
window. But mothers, we are told in these latter days, are not always
the wisest guardians of their "flapper" daughters. This mother had a
decided _penchant_ for a khaki coat herself; only she demanded braid
on the cuff and a smartly cut collar, and these she would greet in the
street with a tender act of homage which rarely failed to win admiring
attention. But for a daughter who would dash down the road after a
Tommy she had contempt rather than disapproval. So she watched with
interest, but, alas! with no idea of interference.