tell
you, and never cracked a smile, and no more did the old man"--this
being the unofficial title of all commanding officers.

"Do you think it would work on Major Harlow?" anxiously inquired
Beverley, "because this afternoon Sally and I----"

Here the conference was reduced to whispers, as plans were made to
conquer Major Harlow. Only daughters are highly prized by doting
fathers.

A broken ankle at fifty does not heal in a day, and until Christmas Eve
Colonel Fortescue was a prisoner in his chair, doing his administrative
work; and when that was done being cheered and soothed by the
tenderness in which he had been lapped since the day when, as a young
lieutenant, he married Betty Beverley in an old Virginia church. Never
was anything seen like Anita's devotion to her father. It seemed as if
she were never out of sound and reach of him and gave up all the
merry-making of the Christmas time to be with him. This prevented
Broussard from seeing Anita very often, and never alone, but they had
entered the Happy Valley together, and basked in the delicate joy of
love unspoken, but not unfelt. Anita knew that Broussard was only
biding his time, and Broussard knew that Anita was waiting, in smiling
silence. The Colonel wrote Broussard a very handsome note of thanks
and Mrs. Fortescue greeted him with grateful thanks. Then, Christmas
was coming, the claims of the After-Clap and the eight McGillicuddys
became insistent. Broussard did not forget the prisoner in the grim
military prison, nor the woman so faithful to the prisoner. Sergeant
McGillicuddy spent a small fortune in such comforts as Lawrence was
allowed to receive at Christmas time, and his knotty, weather-beaten
face grew positively cheerful over the way Lawrence was really
reforming.

Broussard knew that Anita would not come to the Christmas Eve ball,
because in the evening her father liked her to read to him. But
Broussard went to the ball, and for the first time found a Christmas
ball dull. Flowers were scarce at Fort Blizzard, but by the
expenditure of much time and money Broussard succeeded in getting a
great box of fresh white roses for Anita on Christmas Day.

Broussard went to the early service at the chapel in the darkness that
comes before the dawn. The little chapel shone with lights and echoed
with the triumphant Christmas music. It was quite full, but Anita sat
alone in the C. O.'s pew. She was all in black, except a single white
rose