But Mrs.Fortescue had a sneaking affection for Birdseye and much preferred her to Pretty Maid, the brown mare Anita rode, and who was considered as demure as Anita, and Anita was very demure, and very, very pretty.

At least, so thought Lieutenant Victor Broussard, watching her out of the tail of his eye, as he passed some distance away.

It was not so far away, however, that Anita could not see the handsome turn of his close-cropped black head, and his eyes full of laughter and courage and impudence.

As some things go by contraries, the glimpse of Broussard made Anita dismount quickly from Pretty Maid and flit within doors to avoid the sight of him.

Once indoors, Anita ran where she could catch a last look of Broussard's young figure, his cavalry cape thrown back, before he turned the corner and was gone.
Colonel Fortescue, at the office window, returned a salute, without a smile, to Mrs.Fortescue's greeting from afar.