h the manifest object of taking the General and his
staff into her confidence, to the equally manifest dismay of the chief
and the disgust of his adjutant-general, neither of whom could check the
volume of the good lady's words of woe. Loring found his soldierly
commander grinning whimsically when he dropped in to say good-morning.
The General was that rare combination--a devout churchman and a stalwart
fighter. Time and money had he devoted to the building up of this little
church in the wilderness, and the communion service was his gift. More
than once had he knelt to receive the sacred elements from the trembling
hands of the worthy rector and listen to Mrs. Burton's effusive "Amen!"
on his left ere she parted with the cup that was then passed to his
bearded lips. At the chancel rail all good Christians knelt in common
and meekly bowed their heads, but when Mrs. Burton came up to
headquarters with a rail of her own, the General couldn't stand it, and
said so to worthy Lambert, who remonstrated with the widow.

"Then the least he can do as a gentleman, after deceiving me so, is to
help pay for them things I bought on the strength of his promise to
board with me," was that pragmatical person's reply, and this view of
the case the energetic lady ventilated to her six boarders, and they to
the flock. There was one boarder, a temporary sojourner only, who
listened and said naught. But that was only another of her aristocratic,
stuck-up ways, said they. She was "a lovely young lady," as all admitted
on her first timid appearance, and the three women who sat at table with
her were eager to take her into close fellowship and confidence, and the
two young men, clerking in the new stores, no doubt, were as eager. But
it became apparent within twenty-four hours that she held herself above,
and desired to hold herself aloof from them, which led to a dissection
of her personal charms on part of the women, and of her mental gifts on
part of the men. Mr. Lambert had commended her to the care of Mrs.
Burton. Her board was paid in advance and no questions asked. She went
to church and sang softly, but in a voice so exquisitely sweet and
penetrating that it tempered the strident melodies of the devout
Omahannas, and caused many a head to turn. She spent the first few days
at the rector's, or in her room. Then came a roomer with the rumor that
she had a follower, and for two evenings she was seen with a strange
young man, pacing slowly