ds
at school, his fellows at the Point, his comrades in the service,
wherever physical beauty, grace, skill and strength could prevail he
had ever been easily winner, and when it came to women, what maid or
matron had withstood his charm of manner? What man had ever yet
prevailed against it? That others should long and strive for that which
had come to him, unsought, unwooed, was something he could neither
obviate nor deny. That was Nature's gift to him at birth. It was even
magnanimous that, knowing this power, he should so often spare. Maids
indeed might sigh at his indifference, but their solace lay in the
eager offerings of other and less gifted men. Suffice it for him that
at his beck the best of them would quit the shelter of other arms and
come fluttering to his own. But now, of course, all this power of
fascination must be sternly tempered, even suppressed. Henceforth he
must be guarded. The winning of this pure young heart, the possession
of this sweet and winsome nature, the lavish homage of this fresh and
fervent love should steel his hitherto vagrant fancy against all
would-be-willing victims. The time had come when other women must be
bidden, if need be, to droop and die. Henceforth he had naught to offer
them but the contemplation of his content and her unquestioned
queendom.

And so he could forgive it in Harris that he should come forth with no
welcoming look for him, the conqueror, and only a yearning gaze for
her. He could have felt quick resentment had Harris manifested nothing
but rejoicing, even in expressing it. He had hated Harris when, deposed
from his high rank as first captain of the Corps of Cadets, he had seen
that far less showy soldier, his classmate, step easily into command
and hold it with better discipline and ever-increasing respect from the
entire battalion. The day of their departure from the Point had been to
Willett an unforgotten, unforgiven lesson. It was the custom of the
times--an unwritten, if unmilitary law--that on graduation day the
class should appear at the mess hall at the dinner hour, and either
singly or in little groups of two or three leave the building while the
corps still sat at meat. It was even permitted that some should utter a
word or two of farewell. Man after man Willett's fellows had taken
their departure, and been accorded by the gray battalion a godspeed
more or less thunderous as the individual was honored, popular, or
merely a negative quantity. Willet