mma. That was another
thing from which the father shrank. He saw the lad's sudden confusion,
and knew that something was being held back, but it was something that
should be held back. In all his teachings as to utter frankness, truth,
confidence, he, of course, had never meant that his boy should be a
tale-bearer--above all that he should ever come with tales of his new
mamma; yet Dwight, unfortunately, had never given him to understand that
there were matters, now that the boy was growing older and observant,
concerning which no confidences were expected or invited. But it had set
him to thinking--to questioning Inez as to her sudden recovery, and
again, more pointedly that Monday afternoon between the hour of his
visit with the colonel and his ominous symptoms at parade, thereby
bringing on a fit of nerves for her and a swimming of the head for
himself. It was while he was waiting for Jimmy's home-coming that
Felicie--ostentatiously bustling to and fro, all sympathy for Madame in
her prostration and anxiety as to M'sieu, the Commandant--had contrived
to intimate that Monsieur James had been so imprudent as to rush, all
ensanguined, into the presence of Madame, and now and under such
circumstances, and in virgin modesty, Felicie's eyelids drooped, "Madame
should be spared all possibility of shock or emotion." Under any other
circumstances with what a thrill would he have listened to her words!
Did not Monsieur conceive? And Madame's heart and sympathies so
all-responsive! Had they not already been lacerated by the story of the
suffering of the little George, an infant, oh, heaven, the most amiable!
But assuredly Monsieur James had apprised his father of all that had
taken place. He, too, was an infant the most amiable, and Dwight,
overwrought and bewildered, before Jimmy went to his bed that night, had
again asked him what all this meant about Georgie Thornton, and, looking
squarely into his father's face, with Margaret's soul speaking from his
clear, unflinching, fearless eyes, the little man had said again, "Why,
daddy, I haven't an idea! I didn't even _hear_ he was hurt until you
told me."

Then had come a morning's drill following an almost sleepless night, and
during drill he had rebuked young Thornton for the faults of his
platoon, and after drill had lectured him a bit for seeming neglect or
indifference, and even of sullen acceptance of deserved criticism. Then,
suddenly, remembering, he ceased his rebuke, tur