anxiety. Billy, Junior, when he should have been studying for West
Point, had been spooning over a pretty girl not yet in long dresses, and
Sandy, their firstborn, the soldier boy, had come home from the Islands
wounded in body and soul. The scar of the bullet would not be long
healing, but the sting of that other shock and sorrow, who could say
what that might yet import? for Sandy would not speak of it. Sandy would
not so much as refer to his brief dream of bliss and the girl that
inspired it. Sandy had come to them at Minneconjou to recuperate,
detached from his own regiment "for such light duty as he might be able
to perform" with his father's squadron of the old --th. Sandy was a sad
and silent man. "Let him alone to beat it out in time," said the
soldier-father. "It is the only way." But Marion's mother heart yearned
over her boy and his wordless sorrowing. He must have loved that
beautiful but unprincipled creature with all his fervent young heart.

Colonel Stone, who was now in command at Minneconjou, had known the Rays
for years and was firmly their friend. Without so much as a hint from
any source, he had divined that Sandy's low spirits were not the result
of that bullet wound. He could not but note the solicitude with which
his cavalry friend and oft-time fellow-campaigner regarded the silent
young soldier, his eldest son. Colonel Stone had suggested at first that
Sandy be put at surveying the reservation--something to keep him long
hours each day in the open air. But barely six months had elapsed since
the Engineers, under orders from department headquarters, had completed
with chain, rod and transit thorough plotting of the six mile square, to
the end that a very finely finished map was received almost at the time
the colonel first broached the subject. Sandy could not yet take part in
the sharp mounted drills that were his father's delight. Something had
to be done to give him measurably congenial occupation. He could not
play tennis, croquet or billiards. He would not play poker or find
solace in Scotch highballs. He might have derived some comfort from
reading and study, but Priscilla was beset with desire to prescribe his
reading and guide his studies, for Priscilla, being several years his
senior in age and many volumes his superior in reading, was ever mindful
of the mission which no conscientious woman should be without. Priscilla
had thought to start a school for the children of the garrison, but
fo