"Oh, it isn't that I'm actually a non-combatant, Sis, but I've lost
my nerve, and what I have left is frayed to a frazzle. I've just got
to do nothing but look handsome for the next three months."

"It's a good time to look that way," ventured Bess.

"Look how?" asked Jack.

"Handsome. Tell me about the pretty stranger, Cora."

"What's that?" cried Walter, crowding up. "Handsome stranger?
Remember, boys, I saw her first!"

"She means the lace seller," said Belle, languidly.

"Tell you later," Cora promised.




CHAPTER V

INEZ


They were at the autos, standing near the edge of the depot platform
now. The porter had set down the grips of the boys, and had departed
with that touching of the cap, and the expansive smile, which
betokens a fifty-cent tip. They do not touch the cap for a quarter