ovely sister with
charming grace on their arrival two days previous to the stirring event
of the dinner, and every one was looking forward to a probable series of
pleasant entertainments by the two households, even while wondering how
long the _entente cordiale_ would last,--when the colonel's invitation
to Mr. Hayne brought on an immediate crisis. It is safe to say that Mrs.
Rayner was madder than the captain her husband, who hardly knew how to
take it. He was by no means the best liked officer in his regiment, nor
the "deepest" and best informed, but he had a native shrewdness which
helped him. He noted even before his wife would speak of it to him the
gradual dying out of the bitter feeling that had once existed at Hayne's
expense. He felt, though it hurt him seriously to make inquiries, that
the man whom he had practically crushed and ruined in the long ago was
slowly but surely gaining strength even where he would not make friends.
Worse than all, he was beginning to doubt the evidence of his own senses
as the years receded, and unknown to any soul on earth, even his wife,
there was growing up deep down in his heart a gnawing, insidious,
ever-festering fear that after all, after all, he might have been
mistaken. And yet on the sacred oath of a soldier and a gentleman,
against the most searching cross-examination, again and again had he
most confidently and positively declared that he had both seen and heard
the fatal interview on which the whole case hinged. And as to the exact
language employed, he alone of those within earshot had lived to testify
for or against the accused: of the five soldiers who stood in that now
celebrated group, three were shot to death within the hour. He was
growing nervous, irritable, haggard; he was getting to hate the mere
mention of the case. The promotion of Hayne to his own company thrilled
him with an almost superstitious dismay. _Were_ his words coming true?
_Was_ it the judgment of an offended God that his hideous pride,
obstinacy, and old-time hatred of this officer were now to be revenged
by daily, hourly contact with the victim of his criminal persecution? He
had grown morbidly sensitive to any remarks as to Hayne's having "lived
down" the toils in which he had been encircled. Might he not "live down"
the ensnarer? He dreaded to see him,--though Rayner was no coward,--and
he feared day by day to hear of his restoration to fellowship in the
regiment, and yet would have given half