ndeed, marching orders had come. The autumn shaking up was
distributing regiments anew, and once more Kenyon's battalions were
striding through the Chicago streets,--Forrest, after sixteen years of
subaltern life, wearing at last the new shoulder-straps of the
captaincy. Cranston and his squadron, still retained within supporting
distance of the old homestead, eagerly welcomed their comrades of the
riot days, and no sooner were they fairly settled down in the fine
quarters at Sheridan than the new captain was out of uniform and into
civilian dress and speeding townward,--"to see Wells," he said. Forrest
lived with Cranston a few days while getting his own quarters in
readiness, and was there to help the major welcome home his wife on her
return from Europe late in October. Going to town "to see Wells" seemed
to prove a bootless errand, for he came back with gloom in his dark
brown eyes,--very pathetic gloom, Mrs. Cranston called it, and she, who
had early gone to town to call on Mrs. Wells, began going rather more
frequently than ever the major had contemplated, so interested was she
in Mrs. Wells's boarder. "I want to know her well enough to be able to
talk to her," she explained to her husband; but Cranston demurred.
Possibly he knew from old experiences that one way not to influence a
girl in favor of a friend was for Margaret to set to work to try. With
the caution born of a quarter of a century of married bliss, however, he
did not remind his better half of previous experiments. He meekly
suggested that, as Forrest was likely to remain on duty all winter
within besieging distance, it might be well to leave him and the lady to
work out their own destiny.

"But it's so absurd, Wilbur!" said Margaret. "He is deeply, honestly,
utterly in love with her, and she's worthy of every bit of it, if I'm
any judge of a girl, and if she isn't careful she'll drive him away or
anger him with her refusals to hear him. Why, she has refused even to
see him, Mrs. Wells tells me, and--it's nothing but stubborn pride."
Evidently, therefore, these two dames had been putting their heads
together and were now in the combination to force Jenny to surrender.

Yet Jenny was right, knew she was right, and was to be moved neither by
Forrest's pleadings nor by his friends' reproaches. There had been one
long and painful interview between her and her lover soon after his
return, and then very gently but very firmly she had told him that the
matt