ess, distance of manner, or at the least the pronounced
snubs that greeted Gleason, would have long since had effect, but he was
proof against such methods, and no sooner detected them than he found
excuses to force himself upon the attention or conversation of the
officer, and in so insidious a way as to disarm resistance. He would
fairly beam with cordiality and respect upon the commanding officer who
was short and gruff with him; he would invade old Stannard's quarters to
ask his advice about the purchase of a horse or the proper method of
dealing with some one of his men,--and the major had a soft side in
looking after the rights of the rank and file; he would drop in to ask
Mrs. Stannard the name of a new flower he had picked up out near the
targets. He cared no more for flowers than she did for him, but it gave
him temporary admission, generally when other ladies had called for a
morning chat, and though she cordially disliked him, Mrs. Stannard was
too thorough a lady to show the least discourtesy to an officer of her
husband's regiment. Gleason well knew it, and laid his plans
accordingly. For a long time, indeed, there were ladies who could not
understand why Mr. Gleason should be so contemptuously spoken of by the
officers. He was so thoughtful, so delicate, and then he was so lonely.
Gleason was a widower, whose eyes would often overflow when he spoke of
the little woman whom he had buried years ago down in Connecticut; but
when Mrs. Turner once questioned Captain Baxter, who knew them when they
were in the old infantry regiment in Louisiana, and referred to its
being so sad and touching to hear Mr. Gleason talk of his dead wife and
their happy days among the orange-groves near Jackson Barracks, the
captain astonished her by an outburst of derisive laughter. "Happy,
madam?" said he; "by gad! if ever a woman died of neglect, abuse, and
ill-treatment Mrs. Gleason did, and next time he attempts to gull you
with sentiment, just you refer him to me." But then, as Mrs. Turner
said, poor Captain Baxter's finer sensibilities seemed to have been
blunted by a lifetime in the quartermaster's department, and for quite a
while Mr. Gleason was one of her favorites,--quite a devotee in fact,
until the disastrous day when she discovered that so far from having
been ill and unable to ride with her, as he claimed, he had been
spending the afternoon in the fascinations of poker. One by one the
ladies of the --th had learned to tr