"
"Of course we want to see the decorations," cried Katherine with
enthusiasm, and so bowing to the Captain and Mrs. Kempt, the
Lieutenant led the young women down the deck, until he came to an
elevated spot out of the way of all possible promenaders, on which had
been placed in a somewhat secluded position, yet commanding a splendid
view of the throng, a settee with just room for two, that had been
taken from some one's cabin. A blue-jacket stood guard over it, but at
a nod from the Lieutenant he disappeared.
"Hello!" cried Katherine, "reserved seats, eh? How different from a
theatre chair, where you are entitled to your place by holding a
colored bit of cardboard. Here a man with a cutlass stands guard. It
gives one a notion of the horrors of war, doesn't it, Dorothy?"
The Lieutenant laughed quite as heartily as if he had not himself
hoped to occupy the position now held by the sprightly Katherine. He
was cudgelling his brain to solve the problem represented by the adage
"Two is company, three is none." The girls sat together on the settee
and gazed out over the brilliantly lighted, animated throng. People
were still pouring up the gangways, and the decks were rapidly
becoming crowded with a many-colored, ever-shifting galaxy of
humanity. The hum of conversation almost drowned the popular
selections being played by the cruiser's excellent band. Suddenly one
popular selection was cut in two.
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