'
He smiled in a fashion that struck her as unfamiliar.
'What's up, Mac?' she asked, kindly. 'Surely ye ha'ena cast oot
wi' yer uncle?'
'I've enlisted,' he softly exploded.
She stared, and the colour rose in her pretty face, but her voice
was calm. 'Lucky you!' said she.
He was disappointed. Involuntarily he exclaimed: 'Ye're no a bit
surprised!'
'What regiment?'
He told her, and she informed him that he wouldn't look so bad in
the kilt. He announced that he was to report himself on the
morrow, and she merely commented, 'Quick work.'
'But, Christina, ye couldna ha'e guessed I was for enlistin',' he
said, after a pause.
'I was afraid--I mean for to say, I fancied ye were the sort to dae
it. If I had kent for sure, I wud ha'e been knittin' ye socks
instead o' a silly tie for yer birthday.'
'Ha'e ye been knittin' a tie for me?'
'Uh-ha--strictly platonic, of course.'
She had used the word more than once in the past, and he had not
derived much comfort from looking it up in the dictionary. But now
he was going--he told himself--to be put off no longer. Seating
himself at the counter, he briefly recounted his uncle's kindness
and his aunt's munificence. Then he attempted to secure her hand.
She evaded his touch, asking how his parents had taken his
enlistment. On his answering----
'Dear, dear!' she cried, with more horror than she may have felt,
'an here ye are, wastin' the precious time in triflin' conversation
wi' me!'
'It's you that's daein' the triflin',' he retorted, with sudden
spirit; 'an' it's your fau't I'm here noo instead o' at hame.
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