. Instead of being furious with him,
the whole regiment--officers and men--simply ridiculed and laughed at
him. He had talked of preferring charges against Blake for
insubordination, and asked the adjutant what he thought of it. It was
the first time he had spoken to the adjutant for weeks, and the
adjutant rushed out of the office to tell the crowd to come in and "hear
Buxton's latest." It began to look as though nothing serious would ever
come of the affair, until Rayner reappeared and people saw how very ill
he was. Dr. Pease had been consulted; and it was settled that he as well
as his wife must go away for several months and have complete rest and
change. It was decided that they would leave by the 1st of May. All this
Mr. Hayne heard through his kind friend Mrs. Waldron.

One day when he first began to sit up, and before he had been out at
all, she came and sat with him in his sunshiny parlor. There had been a
silence for a moment as she looked around upon the few pictures and upon
that bareness and coldness which, do what he will, no man can eradicate
from his abiding-place until he calls in the deft and dainty hand of
woman.

"I shall be so glad when you have a wife, Mr. Hayne!" was her quiet
comment.

"So shall I, Mrs. Waldron," was the response.

"And isn't it high time we were beginning to hear of a choice? Forgive
my intrusiveness, but that was the very matter of which the major and I
were talking as he brought me over."

"There is something to be done first, Mrs. Waldron," he answered. "I
cannot offer any woman a clouded name. It is not enough that people
should begin to believe that I was innocent and my persecutors utterly
in error, if not perjured. I must be able to show who was the real
culprit, and that is not easy. The doctor and I thought we saw a way not
long ago; but it proved delusive." And he sighed deeply. "I had expected
to see the major about it the very day he got back from the court; but
we have had no chance to talk."

"Mr. Hayne," she said, impulsively, "a woman's intuition is not always
at fault. Tell me if you believe that any one on the post has any
inkling of the truth. I have a reason for asking."

"I _did_ think it possible, Mrs. Waldron. I cannot be certain now; and
it's too late, anyway."

"How, too late? What's too late?"

He paused a moment, a deeper shadow than usual on his face; then he
lifted his head and looked fairly at her:

"I should not have said that, Mrs. W