t morning, Billings
looked him in the eye, took his hand, but there was no warmth in the
welcome, and Ray felt rebuffed. "I heard Ned Billings had developed into
something of a snob," said he afterwards, "but he's changed more, for a
frank-hearted fellow that he was ten years ago, than any man I know."
And so it happened that two men whose lives were closely interwoven from
that time on, who had much in common, who, "had they but known," could
never have drifted apart, began the next stage with an unknown, unseen,
yet undeniable influence thrusting them asunder. And it was of these two
men that the picturesque group on the colonel's piazza happened to be
speaking this very May morning as the major and Mr. Ray, dismounting at
the south gate, strolled lazily up the lane. It was the habit of the
former when not on military duty to thrust his hands deep down into his
trousers pockets, and allow his ample and aldermanic paunch to repose
its weight upon his sabre-belt. As the belt was worn only at the hours
of drill or parade, it followed that there were lapses of time wherein
the paunch knew no such military trammel, and a side elevation of the
battalion commander warranted the simile put in circulation by
Lieutenant Blake: "The major looked as though he had swallowed a drum."
Ray, on the contrary, was slimly, even elegantly built, a trifle taller
than his bulky superior, and though indolent in his general movements,
excitement or action transformed him in an instant. Then in every motion
he was quick as a cat. It was his wont to wear his forage-cap far down
over his forehead and canted very much over the right eye, while,
contrary to the fashion of that day, his dark hair fell below the visor
in a sweeping and decided "bang" almost to his eyebrows, which were
thick, dark brown, and low-arched. A semi-defiant backward toss of the
head was the result as much perhaps of the method of wearing his cap as
of any pronounced mental characteristic. When Stannard was talking
eagerly of any subject his hands went deeper into his pockets, his head
thrust forward, and his eyes fairly popped, as though slight additional
pressure would project them into space like many-tinted grape-shot. If
he were standing still, he tilted on his toes and dropped his head to
one side as he expounded, until the ear wellnigh reposed upon the
shoulder-strap. Ray, on the other hand, threw his head farther back and,
unless he was angry, showed his white teeth t