then the hops
wouldn't have to close at midnight either! and Mrs. Turner was devoted
to dancing.

"But papa says Mr. Billings is right about not letting the band play
after midnight," broke in the young lady, whose years had been spent in
many a garrison, and whose papa--the post surgeon--had pronounced views
on matters of military and medical discipline. "Papa says the officers
have no right to make the band play until late at night unless they pay
them extra. They have to be up at reveille, and it's a shame to make
them work all day and at night too!"

"The doctor is by no means alone in that idea," began a third speaker in
a quiet voice, and both Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Raymond, who had
impulsively burst into speech at the same instant, checked their nimble
tongues, bridled, sweetly said, "I beg your pardon, Mrs. Stannard," and
inclined attentive ears to a lady who at the moment had stepped from the
open door-way to the piazza. It was evident that she was a late arrival,
in whose presence the others felt bound to observe the deferential
manners which further intimacy would possibly extinguish. "Indeed," she
went on, "only this morning at breakfast Colonel Foster was saying that
the bandsmen were getting their full share of work, and that Mr.
Billings was quite right in the stand he made in the matter."

"Ah, Mrs. Stannard, I don't wonder Mr. Billings is devoted to you!" said
Mrs. Raymond. "You are always ready to defend him."

"He was in our troop, you know, and I feel that he belongs to us to a
certain extent," said Mrs. Stannard, smiling brightly, and nodding
pleasant greetings to the two officers who were passing at the moment,
still intent in their earnest talk. The major merely glanced at the
piazza and pulled off his cap, as though he wished its fair occupants
were beyond saluting distance. Ray bowed with laughing grace, and sung
out cheerily,--

"Don't expect the major home just yet, Mrs. Stannard; he's giving me
fits, and I'm in for a lecture."

The ladies were silent a moment, until the pair had passed on out of
earshoot. Then Mrs. Turner took up the cudgels again.

"And yet, Mrs. Stannard, it wasn't so when Mr. Truscott was adjutant. We
could have the band night after night if we wanted to, and surely you
won't say that Mr. Truscott wasn't the very paragon of an adjutant."

"No, indeed," was the reply. "We all know how unequalled Mr. Truscott
was; but then, were not the conditions very different, Mrs.