iss Sanford, as she rose to
enter the hall.

"I _know_ you would. Only--well, you might not like him entirely,
either. Jack should be here in less than half an hour now, then we'll
have tea. Oh, Marion! I'm so glad you will stay, so will he be."

On the parlor-table, as they entered, lay two letters. Turning up the
gas, Mrs. Truscott scanned the superscriptions. Both were addressed to
her husband. One was postmarked Fort Hays.

"This is the one Jack will open first," she said to her friend. "I don't
know whom the other comes from, but this is news from the regiment. It
is Mr. Billings's writing, and Jack is always eager for news from him."

"Mr. Ferris asked me this evening, while we were walking, if Captain
Truscott had any news from his regiment. He seemed unusually interested.
I could not tell why, but it was something about General Crook being
heavily reinforced by troops from somewhere. They were talking of it
down at the mess to-day, and Mr. Waring said that if his regiment were
ordered on that duty, he would apply by telegraph to Washington for
orders to join it at once. There was some embarrassment then, because
one of the gentlemen present--Mr. Ferris wouldn't say who--belonged to a
regiment already there on that very campaign, and he had not applied for
orders at all, and wasn't going to, and----Why, _Grace_! What is the
matter?"

With her face rapidly paling Grace Truscott had stood gazing piteously
at her companion, and then, seizing the letter in her trembling hands,
she stood glaring at the address. For a moment she made no reply, and
again Miss Sanford, alarmed, repeated her question.

"Marion! Marion! It means that I know now why Jack did not show me Major
Stannard's last letter. It means that this letter from the adjutant is
to tell Jack that the --th is ordered into the field. It means--it
means"--and she threw herself prone upon the sofa, clinching her hands
above her head--"it means that my dream of delight is shattered; they
will take my husband from me."

"But how--but why, Grace? I don't understand. Mr. Ferris said distinctly
that Captain Truscott would not be affected, that he had just begun his
detail here. If an officer doesn't _have_ to go when his regiment is
already in the field, how can your husband be required?"

"_My_ husband! Marion. You don't know him, neither does Mr. Ferris, if
that's his idea. My husband would never wait to be ordered to join his
comrades on campaign. If tha