had ventured, in
presence of several of her coterie, to speak once too often of that
lovely smile. "Merciful powers! Captain Turner. Any woman with Mrs.
Stannard's teeth could afford to smile from morning till night; but it's
all teeth!" But even Mrs. Turner knew better. It was a smile born of
genuine goodness, of charity, of loving-kindness, and of a spiritual
grace that made Mrs. Stannard marked among her associates. In all the
regiment no woman was so looked up to and loved as she.

Grace Truscott had known her well by reputation, though this was their
first meeting. It seemed not a little strange to Miss Sanford that they
should be going thus suddenly and unceremoniously to be the guests of a
lady whom neither of them had ever seen, but "'tis the way we have in
the Army," was the laughing response when she ventured to speak of it,
and any hesitancy or embarrassment she might have felt vanished at the
instant when their hostess appeared on the piazza and both her hands
were outstretched in welcome. "Did you ever see a lovelier expression in
a woman's face?" was her first impulsive exclamation when she and Grace
were shown to their rooms. Yet, once her guests were up-stairs and out
of the way, Mrs. Stannard's brow clouded not a little as she descended
to the piazza, where she had left Mr. Gleason superintending the
unloading of trunks, boxes, and other baggage, and giving directions
about the distribution of this thing or that quite as though "one of the
family." She had never liked him; the major cordially hated him; she
knew that Captain Truscott could not possibly feel any friendship for
such a man, and yet here he was, the escort of Mrs. Truscott and Miss
Sanford on their journey. They were her guests, and therefore she had to
be unusually civil to him. One or two officers came up to speak to him
as he stood at the little gate, and the post adjutant invited him to
send his traps to his quarters, where a room was ready. Gleason looked
around at Mrs. Stannard and remarked, "Well, I'm much obliged, but you
see I'm rather bound as yet to our ladies," and plainly intimated that
he hoped Mrs. Stannard would offer him the spare room on the parlor
floor, but Mrs. Stannard did nothing of the kind; and, not very
gracefully, he availed himself of the young infantryman's courtesy. The
baggage was all in by this time, and there was no need of his prolonging
his stay. Mrs. Stannard, of course, announced that they expected the
p