t poor John will be killed,' he continued
after a pause. 'He is sure to be among the first that will have to face
the invaders, and the trumpeters get picked off.'

'There is the same chance for him as for the others,' said Anne.

'Yes--yes--the same chance, such as it is. You have never liked John
since that affair of Matilda Johnson, have you?'

'Why?' she quickly asked.

'Well,' said Bob timidly, 'as it is a ticklish time for him, would it not
be worth while to make up any differences before the crash comes?'

'I have nothing to make up,' said Anne, with some distress. She still
fully believed the trumpet-major to have smuggled away Miss Johnson
because of his own interest in that lady, which must have made his
professions to herself a mere pastime; but that very conduct had in it
the curious advantage to herself of setting Bob free.

'Since John has been gone,' continued her companion, 'I have found out
more of his meaning, and of what he really had to do with that woman's
flight. Did you know that he had anything to do with it?'

'Yes.'

'That he got her to go away?'

She looked at Bob with surprise. He was not exasperated with John, and
yet he knew so much as this.

'Yes,' she said; 'what did it mean?'

He did not explain to her then; but the possibility of John's death,
which had been newly brought home to him by the military events of the
day, determined him to get poor John's character cleared. Reproaching
himself for letting her remain so long with a mistaken idea of him, Bob
went to his father as soon as they got home, and begged him to get Mrs.
Loveday to tell Anne the true reason of John's objection to Miss Johnson
as a sister-in-law.

'She thinks it is because they were old lovers new met, and that he wants
to marry her,' he exclaimed to his father in conclusion.

'Then _that's_ the meaning of the split between Miss Nancy and Jack,'
said the miller.

'What, were they any more than common friends?' asked Bob uneasily.

'Not on her side, perhaps.'

'Well, we must do it,' replied Bob, painfully conscious that common
justice to John might bring them into hazardous rivalry, yet determined
to be fair. 'Tell it all to Mrs. Loveday, and get her to tell Anne.'

XXIV. A LETTER, A VISITOR, AND A TIN BOX

The result of the explanation upon Anne was bitter self-reproach. She
was so sorry at having wronged the kindly soldier that next morning she
went by herself to the down, and st