"They won't do it for him," said Carr; "they _can't_--unless the Com. or the officer in charge says so. You'll have to go yourself. Towser's in charge."
"Send the Kitten," said Miss Dangleum. "That will just fit. Here, Puss, draw in your claws and stretch out your paws, and go get an order for the band to play 'Love Not.'"
So the écru dress flitted away, and the others watched with deep interest.
"Yes, he will," said Miss Dangleum. "Puss is a match for the whole canine contingent."
And so it proved. The band finished the fantasia they had in hand, took their short rest, and struck off into the old, time-worn air.
And now everybody stopped to listen; some because they remembered it so long ago, and some because it was so old that it was new.
Magnus Kindred knew it well. The flood of new music had spread but slowly over his own little home region, and this air had always been a favourite with his mother. In the old childish days, before sorrows came, he had many a time heard her sing it. And now, amid the sweet rendering of the band, he seemed to hear her dear voice still, and the old words kept sounding in his ears:
"Love not! Love not! The thing you love may change."
"Never!" Magnus said to himself. Not one of those four beloved people at home could ever swerve from him. What stuff those song makers did write!
He followed the band through the variations and interlude. Then began the simple air again; and the words would come:
"Love not! Love not! The thing you love may die."
A great pang shot through the boy's heart. _Could_ such things happen to him? How had his mother looked? Magnus turned away from the band and hid himself in the dark recesses of his tent.
Rien de trop est un point Dont on parle sans cesse, et qu'on observe point.
So Miss Dangleum failed for that time. But "To-morrow is also a day," says the proverb. And it is not in human nature to be always insensible to blandishments. Mr. Kindred found himself scanning his wonderful eyes in the small glass quite oftener than was needed. He could also pick out Miss Dangleum's red parasol clear across the plain from all its compeers; and knew at least half of Miss Beguile's fans by experience. She declared that he had broken a quarter of them, but this statement is plainly incorrect.