, whom she could remember only
vaguely, but of whom she never tired of hearing; and that night Mrs.
Rayner rebuked her severely for her disloyalty to the captain, who had
given her a home.

But when Mrs. Rayner heard that Major and Mrs. Waldron had invited Mr.
Hayne to dine with them, and had invited to meet him two of the cavalry
officers and their wives, she was incensed beyond measure. She and Mrs.
Waldron had a brief talk, as a result of which Mrs. Rayner refused to
speak to Mrs. Waldron at the evening party given by Mrs. Stannard in
honor of her and her sister. It was this that brought on the crisis.
Whatever was said between the men was not told. Major Waldron and
Captain Rayner had a long consultation, and they took no one into their
confidence; but Mrs. Rayner obeyed her husband, went to Mrs. Waldron and
apologized for her rudeness, and then went with her sister and returned
the call of the colonel's wife; but she chose a bright afternoon, when
she knew well the lady was not at home.

She retired from the contest, apparently, as has been said, and took
much Christian consolation to herself from the fact that at so great a
sacrifice she was obeying her husband and doing the duty she owed to
him. In very truth, however, the contest was withdrawn from her by the
fact that for a week or more after his evening at the Waldrons' Mr.
Hayne did not reappear in garrison, and she had no cause to talk about
him. Officers visiting the house avoided mention of his name. Ladies of
the cavalry regiment calling upon Mrs. Rayner and Miss Travers
occasionally spoke of him and his devotion to the men and his bravery at
the fire, but rather as though they meant in a general way to compliment
the Riflers, not Mr. Hayne; and so she heard little of the man whose
existence was so sore a trial to her. What she would have said, what she
would have thought, had she known of the meeting between him and her
guarded Nellie, is beyond us to describe; but she never dreamed of such
a thing, and Miss Travers never dreamed of telling her,--for the
present, at least. Fortunately--or unfortunately--for the latter, it was
not so much of her relations with Mr. Hayne as of her relations with
half a dozen young bachelors that Mrs. Rayner speedily felt herself
compelled to complain. It was a blessed relief to the elder sister. Her
surcharged spirit was in sore need of an escape-valve. She was ready to
boil over in the mental ebullition consequent upon M