ailors' shop; half a dozen of the
company tailors work there; but I can send them back to their own
barracks. The house is in good repair, and, as Mr. Hayne says, exactly
like those built for officers' use."

"And you mean you want to live there, alone, Mr. Hayne?"

"I do, sir,--exactly."

The colonel turned sharply to his desk once more. The strained silence
continued a moment. Then he faced his officers:

"Mr. Hayne, will you remain a few moments? I wish to speak with
you.--Gentlemen, that is all this morning." And so the meeting
adjourned.

While many of the cavalry officers strolled into the neighboring
club-and reading-room, it was noticed that their comrades of the
infantry lost no time at intermediate points, but took the shortest road
to the row of brown cottages known as the officers' quarters. The
feeling of constraint that had settled upon all was still apparent in
the group that entered the club-room, and for a moment no one spoke.
There was a general settling into easy-chairs and picking up of
newspapers without reference to age or date. No one seemed to want to
say anything, and yet every one felt it necessary to have some apparent
excuse for becoming absorbed in other matters. This was so evident to
Lieutenant Blake that he speedily burst into a laugh,--the first that
had been heard,--and when two or three heads popped out from behind
their printed screens to inquire into the cause of his mirth, that
light-hearted gentleman was seen sprawling his long legs apart and
gazing out of the window after the groups of infantrymen.

"What do you see that's so intensely funny?" growled one of the elders
among the dragoons.

"Nothing, old mole,--nothing," said Blake, turning suddenly about. "It
looks too much like a funeral procession for fun. What I'm chuckling at
is the absurdity of our coming in here like so many mutes in weepers.
It's none of _our_ funeral."

"Strikes me the situation is damned awkward," growled "the mole" again.
"Here's a fellow comes in who's cut by his regiment and has placed ours
under lasting obligation before he gets inside the post."

"Well, does any man here know the rights and wrongs of the case,
anyhow?" said a tall, bearded captain as he threw aside the paper which
he had not been reading, and rose impatiently to his feet. "It seems to
me, from the little I've heard of Mr. Hayne and the little I've seen,
that there is a broad variation between facts and appearances. He look