THE CADET. 35
QE; ,_. _,._._.--—· .
A   blance of an old one. But that this umbrella should ‘ -
  ` be so base! It cut me to the quick. However, some-
  thing must be done. There stood Dulcie, regarding me
  with scorn as a man who could not even open an um-
Qfxff brella that opened itself. Cautiously and very gently,
  with the spirit of a man resolved to do or die, I went at
  it from behind. Thus taken by surprise it could no ·
  longer resist, but sprang open with a melancholy wail.
gf I felt the flush of victory mount my brow. I was con-
j° querer! But the conquest was not complete; the ·
  umbrella still possessed spirit enough to be exceedingly
  spiteful. It fiapped around in apparent aimlessness,
.   but this was only apparent; each flap had a dark and
P5 deep significance. First it knocked Dulcie’s hat off, .
  then it gouged me in the eye, then it rolled around so
hl? as to allow the rain to slide gracefully down our spinal l
  columns and promised ruin to the suit I had so reck-
  lessly donned, and so on in a series of playful pleas-
  antries. We looked around us for some place of refuge
  and saw a little deserted flagging station at a little dis-
  tance down the road. We started for this as quickly as
  we could go, all the while the umbrella wobbling tipsily
  until finally, with a loud, bang, it closed altogether and
jj utterly declined to open again. Dulcie gave a little
  gasp. "Coine," she said, and, catching up her skirts in
  both hands, she sped like Atalanta down the sloping-
  road. I tore after her and in a few minutes we stopped,
  flushed, laughing and triumphant’at the door of the
  little shed. It was little, rickety and very crowded, but
I both of us possessed noble spirits, above such slight dis-
T comforts, and did not object at all.
. \Vhile we were running down the hill I had in some
" way gotten hold of Dulcie’s hand, and now that we had
” reached our refuge I did not relinquish it. I sank
I down before her (somehow it did not seem at all ridicu-