an odd silence for a moment:
then she spoke:

"Mr. Ross, do you know that gentleman?"

"I know who he is. Yes."

"Who is he, then?"

"He is your husband's new first lieutenant, Mrs. Rayner. That is Mr.
Hayne."

"_That!_--Mr. Hayne?" she exclaimed, growing suddenly pale.

"Certainly, madame. Had you never seen him before?"

"Never; and I expected--I didn't expect to see such a--" And she broke
short off, confused and plainly distressed, turned abruptly, and left
the hall as had her husband.

III.

The officers of Fort Warrener were assembled, as was the daily morning
custom, in the presence of the colonel commanding. It had long been the
practice of that veteran soldier to require all his commissioned
subordinates to put in an appearance at his office immediately after the
ceremony of guard-mounting. He might have nothing to say to them, or he
might have a good deal; and he was a man capable of saying a good deal
in very few words, and meaning exactly what he said. It was his custom
to look up from his writing as each officer entered and respond to the
respectful salutation tendered him with an equally punctilious
"Good-morning, Captain Gregg," or "Good-morning, Mr. Blake,"--never
omitting the mention of the name, unless, as was sometimes tried, a
squad of them came in together and made their obeisance as a body. In
this event the colonel simply looked each man in the face, as though
taking mental note of the individual constituents of the group, and
contented himself with a "Good-morning, gentlemen."

When in addition to six troops of his own regiment of cavalry there were
sent to the post a major and four companies of infantry, some of the
junior officers of the latter organization had suggested to their
comrades of the yellow stripes that as the colonel had no roll-call it
might be a matter of no great risk to "cut the _matinee_" on some of the
fiendishly cold mornings that soon set in; but the experiment was never
designedly tried, thanks, possibly, to the frank exposition of his
personal views as expressed by Lieutenant Blake, of the cavalry, who
said, "Try it if you are stagnating for want of a sensation, my genial
plodder, but not if you value the advice of one who has been there, so
to speak. The chief will spot you quicker than he can a missing shoe,--a
missing _horse_shoe, Johnny, let me elaborate for your
comprehension,--and the next question will be, 'Mr. Bluestrap, did you
intentionall