his wealth to bring it about,
could it but have been accomplished without the dreadful admission, "I
was wrong. I was _utterly_ wrong." He had grown lavish in hospitality;
he had become almost aggressively open-handed to his comrades, and had
sought to press money upon men who in no wise needed it. He was as eager
to lend as some are to borrow, and his brother officers dubbed him
"Midas" not because everything he touched would turn to gold, but
because he would intrude his gold upon them at every turn. There were
some who borrowed; and these he struggled not to let repay. He seemed to
have an insane idea that if he could but get his regimental friends
bound to him pecuniarily he could control their opinions and actions. It
was making him sick at heart, and it made him in secret doubly
vindictive and bitter against the man he had doomed to years of
suffering. This showed out that very morning. Mrs. Rayner had begun to
talk, and he turned fiercely upon her:

"Not a word on that subject, Kate, if you love me!--not even the mention
of his name! I must have peace in my own house. It is enough to have to
talk of it elsewhere."

Talk of it he had to. The major early that morning asked him, as they
were going to the _matinee_,--

"Have you seen Hayne yet?"

"Not since he reported on the parade yesterday," was the curt reply.

"Well, I suppose you will send men to help him get those quarters in
habitable shape?"

"I will, of course, major, if he ask it. I don't propose sending men to
do such work for an officer unless the request come."

"He is entitled to that consideration, Rayner, and I think the men
should be sent to him. He is hardly likely to ask."

"Then he is less likely to get them," said the captain, shortly, for,
except the post commander, he well knew that no officer could order it
to be done. He was angry at the major for interfering. They were old
associates, and had entered service almost at the same time, but his
friend had the better luck in promotion and was now his battalion
commander. Rayner made an excuse of stopping to speak with the officer
of the day, and the major went on without him. He was a quiet old
soldier: he wanted no disturbance with his troubled friend, and, like a
sensible man, he turned the matter over to their common superior, in a
very few words, before the arrival of the general audience. It was this
that had caused the colonel to turn quietly to Rayner and say, in the
most matte