"
"Well, they do say English isn't very well taught at West Point,
Captain," she replied, pulling off her gloves. "You oughtn't to blame the
polite stranger for his courtesy."
"I believe you have been up to some mischief, Shirley. If you are seeing
that man Armitage--"
"Captain!"
"Bah! What are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to the ball with you as soon as I can change my gown. I
suppose father and mother have gone."
"They have--for which you should be grateful!"
Captain Claiborne lighted a cigar and waited.
CHAPTER XXI
THE COMEDY OF A SHEEPFOLD
A glance, a word--and joy or pain
Befalls; what was no more shall be.
How slight the links are in the chain
That binds us to our destiny!
--T.B. Aldrich.
Oscar's eye, roaming the landscape as he left Shirley Claiborne and
started for the bungalow, swept the upland Claiborne acres and rested
upon a moving shadow. He drew rein under a clump of wild cherry-trees at
the roadside and waited. Several hundred yards away lay the Claiborne
sheepfold, with a broad pasture rising beyond. A shadow is not a thing to
be ignored by a man trained in the niceties of scouting.
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