le
refugees were received and housed and welcomed with a hospitality and
warmth that one never sees outside the army. Every set of officers'
quarters, therefore, was crowded to its full capacity, and a thing that
never before had happened in the chronicles of the old frontier post
was now a matter of course. Even "Bedlam," the ramshackle, two-story
frame rookery, once sacred to the bachelor element, had now two
families quartered therein, and one of these comprised the wife, maiden
sister, and three children of Captain Forrest, of the cavalry,--"refugees
from Robinson." For several days after their arrival they had been
housed under Major Miller's roof,--all the other quarters, except Dr.
Bayard's, being crowded,--and Nellie Bayard had begged her father to
invite Mrs., Miss, and the little Forrests to make his house their
home. The doctor willingly accorded her permission to invite Miss
Forrest, but drew the line at her unattractive sister-in-law and the
more than unattractive trio of youngsters. Before she had known Miss
Forrest three days, however, Nellie Bayard felt less eagerness to ask
her to be her guest, and Mrs. Miller, as kind and generous a soul as
ever lived, had gone so far as to say to her, "Don't."

And yet it seemed so unkind, so utterly lacking in hospitality or
courtesy. After his second call at the commanding officer's, and a
sprightly chat with this beaming, bright-eyed, vivacious young woman,
Dr. Bayard had rather pointedly inquired,--

"Nellie, dear, I thought you were to invite Miss Forrest to pay you a
visit; have you done so?"

"No, papa," was the hesitating answer. "I did mean to--but--don't you
expect Dr. and Mrs. Graham early next week? You know you'll have to ask
them."

"Oh, I know that, child, but the house is big. There are two spare
rooms, and even if we had to take in more, you two might share your
room awhile, might you not?"

"We might, papa dear; but--I'm afraid I don't like her. That is, she
doesn't attract me as she did at first. I thought her charming then."

"Tut, tut, tut! Why, what on earth's the matter with my little woman?"
asked the doctor, bending down over her as they were walking home. "It
isn't like you, Nell, to be censorious. What's she been doing?--making
eyes at young McLean?"

He might have judged better than that, had he reflected an instant. He
never yet had thought of his daughter except as a mere child, and he
did not mean for an instant to intimate that