Billie! I said it over and over again reverently, her face floating before me in memory, and then my lips closed in sudden determination: not without a fight, a hard fight, was this gray-jacket going to retain her, going to keep her from me.
It was a mad resolve; yet it was there, in my heart and upon my lips.

I had come upon the field late, come in the wrong uniform, but I was sufficiently in earnest now.

The girl liked me, served me, and she interested me as no other ever had.

Her very moods, piquant, reserved, aroused my ambition, stimulated my purpose, and Le Gaire--the very thought of him was a thorn in the flesh.

I have wondered since if I really loved her then; I do not know, but I dreamed of her, idealized her, my heart throbbing at every unusual sound without, hoping she might come again.