aid doggedly. "It is burden enough as it is--we have lost our child.
Not that I care so very much about that; there will be time enough for
more, and children do not add to the comfort of close little quarters
like these. But whether we like it or not, we have lost the child. In
the next place we shall never hear the end of it in the regiment, and I
shall see if I cannot manage to get transferred to another. There will
be no standing the talk there will be."

"Let them talk!" his wife said scornfully. "What do we care about their
talk!"

"I care a great deal," he said. "And I tell you why, because I know what
they will say is true."

"What do you mean?" she asked quickly.

"I mean, Jane, that I know you mixed up those children on purpose."

"How dare you say so!" she exclaimed making a step forward as if she
would strike him.

"I will tell you why I say so. Because I went to the drawer this morning
before going to parade, and I saw some of Mrs. Clinton's baby's
night-gowns in it. Yes, I see they are all in the wash-tub now; but they
were there this morning, and when I heard you say you had put the child
into one of our baby's night-gowns because it had no clean ones of its
own, I knew that you were lying, and that you had done this on purpose."

The woman was silent a moment and then burst out, "You are a greater
fool than ever I thought you! I did tell a lie when I gave that reason
for putting the child into our baby's gown. When I took the two clean
ones out of the drawer I did not notice until I put them on that they
were both ours, and then I thought it was not worth while changing again
just as the child had got quiet and comfortable. Then when I found what
had happened in the morning, I had to make some excuse or other, and
that occurred to me as the best. When I came back I did put them all
into the wash-tub, clean and dirty, in case any one should come here to
see about them. What harm was there in that, I should like to know?"

"You have acknowledged you have told one lie over it; after that you may
say what you like, but you need not expect me to believe you."

"Well, why don't you go at once and tell them that you believe that I
changed the children on purpose?"

"Because in the first place I cannot prove it, and because in the second
case you are my wife, Jane. I took you for better or worse, and whatever
you have done it is not for me to round on you. Anyhow, I will do all I
can to set this matte