own and loved as a child. "I want to see the
mountains, the snow-peaks, the great rolling prairies, once more," she
said; and he had to consent. Man never urged more importunately than he
that the wedding should come off that very winter; but Nellie once more
said no; she could not and would not listen to an earlier date than the
summer to come.

No one on earth knew with what sore foreboding and misery he let her go.
It was something that Mrs. Rayner could not help remarking,--his
unconquerable aversion to every mention of the army and of his own
slight experience on the frontier. He would not talk of it even with
Nellie, who was an enthusiast and had spent two years of her girlhood
almost under the shadow of Laramie Peak and loved the mere mention of
the Wyoming streams and valleys. In her husband's name Mrs. Rayner had
urged him to drop his business early in the spring and come to them for
a visit. He declared it was utterly impossible. Every moment of his time
must be given to the settling of estate affairs, so that he could be a
free man in the summer. He meant to take his bride abroad immediately
and spend a year or more in Europe. These were details which were
industriously circulated by Mrs. Rayner and speedily became garrison
property. It seemed to the men that in bringing her sister there engaged
she had violated all precedent to begin with, and in this instance, at
least, there was general complaint. Mr. Blake said it reminded him of
his early boyhood, when they used to take him to the great toy-stores at
Christmas: "Look all you like, long for it as much as you please, but
don't touch." Merton and Royce, of the cavalry, said it was simply a
challenge to any better fellow to cut in and cut out the Knickerbocker;
and, to do them justice, they did their best to carry out their theory.
Both they and their comrades of the Riflers were assiduous in their
attentions to Miss Travers, and other ladies, less favored, made
acrimonious comment in consequence. A maiden sister of one of the
veteran captains in the ----th, a damsel whose stern asceticism of
character was reflected in her features and grimly illustrated in her
dress, was moved to censure of her more attractive neighbor. "If I had
given my heart to a gentleman," said she, and her manner was indicative
of the long struggle which such a bestowal would cost both him and her,
"nothing on earth would induce _me_ to accept attentions from any one
else, not if _he_