een Alice indeed. There was some difference of opinion
among authorities as to who was really the finest-looking and most
soldierly among the throng of officers in the conventional full-dress
uniform: many there were who gave the palm to the tall, dark, slender
lieutenant of cavalry who wore his shoulder-knots for the first time on
this occasion, and who, for a man from the ranks, seemed consummately at
home in the manifold and trying duties of a groomsman. Mrs. Maynard,
leaning on his arm at a later hour and looking up rapturously in his
bronzed features, had no divided opinion. While others had by no means
so readily forgotten or forgiven the mad freak that so nearly involved
them all in wretched misunderstanding, she had nothing but rejoicing in
his whole career. Proud of the gallant officer who had won the daughter
whom she loved so tenderly, she still believes, in the depths of the
boundless mother-love, that no man can quite surpass her soldier son.

[Footnote A: By act of Congress, officers may be addressed by the title
of the highest rank held by them in the volunteer service during the
war. The colonel always punctiliously so addressed his friend and
subordinate, although in the army his grade was simply that of first
lieutenant.]

THE END.

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