in the garrison, and was aiming to thwart her. This view Mrs. Ray could
not share. She presently put down her pen and passed out into the
dining-room.

"It's a dark little hole at best, Pris," said Sandy, "and I offered you
a good bright room at the Exchange--the very one your paragon used for
about the same purpose when he was stationed here." Sandy _would_ tilt
at his cousin's fad at times, and this was a time, for Sandy had been
crotchety for a week.

"My paragon, as you call him--my ideal of the soldier as we saw him
after Porto Rico," answered 'Cilla, with dignity and precision, "held
his classes there when the rest of the building was not what it is
to-day--a rumshop."

"Not a drop of rum to be had on the premises now, Pris--though there
might have been then."

"I don't believe it! _My_ general was an ascetic. No one ever heard of
his using liquor--and wine is only liquor in another form."

"Come to the library and I'll show you what your General Ascetic wrote
of himself after he was so horribly shot in the Sioux campaign. He said
he owed his recovery to a winter in California and drinking plenty of
good red wine that made blood."

But Priscilla knew that Sandy "had the papers to prove it," and
preferred not to see them, lest her ideals come tumbling. "That might
have been necessary and by physician's prescription," said she. "What I
condemn is its usage when there is no excuse. I should feel that I was
enticing my class into temptation if I led them daily to the Canteen,
and most of them feel as I do about it. Blenke, for instance--though you
don't believe in him, Sandy--when I told him of your offer, he said he
would rather not set foot under that roof."

"When was that?" asked Sandy curiously, seeing a chance for a palpable
hit. "He was sent to Leavenworth with the guard of those deserters
Wednesday morning, and I didn't have it to offer to you until Tuesday
afternoon."

"He came that evening to say he was ordered away with the guard detail.
Two of my men have gone. You can see for yourself, Sandy, that for any
important duty the total abstainer is chosen."

But Mr. Ray did not answer. He was thinking intently. "Was Blenke one of
the two you--spoke of, 'Cilla?" he presently asked.

"No. He came by himself just after they'd gone. He took his leave a very
few minutes later. We heard you coming down."

"And where did you receive your visitors, Pris?"

"I spoke with them at the rear door--what othe