nce in the past.
Hitherto he had chosen to live the life of an anchorite, and had abjured
the society of women. Hitherto he had refused the half-extended proffers
of comrades who had sought to continue the investigation of a chain of
circumstances that, complete, might have proved him a wronged and
defrauded man. The missing links were not beyond recovery in skilful
hands; but in the shock and horror which he felt on realizing that it
was not only possible but certain that a jury of his comrade officers
could deem him guilty of a low crime, he hid his face and turned from
all. _Now_ the time had come to reopen the case. He well knew that a
revulsion of feeling had set in which nothing but his own stubbornness
held in check. He knew that he had friends and sympathizers among
officers high in rank. He had only a few days before heard from Major
Waldron's lips a strong intimation that it was his duty to "come out of
his shell" and reassert himself. "You must remember this, Hayne," said
he: "you had been only two years in service when tried by court-martial.
You were an utter stranger to every member of that court. There was
nothing but the evidence to go upon, and that was all against you. The
court was made up of officers from other regiments, and was at least
impartial. The evidence was almost all from your own, and was presumably
well founded. You would call no witnesses for defence. You made your
almost defiant statement; refused counsel; refused advice; and what
could the court do but convict and sentence? Had I been a member of the
court I would have voted just as was done by the court; and yet I
believe you now an utterly innocent man."

So, apparently, did the colonel regard him. So, too, did several of the
officers of the cavalry. So, too, would most of the youngsters of his
own regiment if he would only give them half a chance. In any event, the
score was wiped out now; he could afford to take a wife if a woman
learned to love him, and what wealth of tenderness and devotion was he
not ready to lavish on one who would! But he would offer no one a
tarnished name. First and foremost he must now stand up and fight that
calumny,--"come out of his shell," as Waldron had said, and give people
a chance to see what manner of man he was. God helping him, he would,
and that without delay.

XIV.

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." Mrs. Rayner,
ill in mind and body, had yielded to her lord's e