ld make you happier, or if--if you feel the
faintest growing fancy for another, that you will tell me."

He smiled gravely as he encircled her in his arm. She drew back, but he
held her.

"Why, Viva, I have never had a thought for any other girl. I simply
thought you might care for some one more than you did for me. It is
settled, then--I promise," and he bent and softly kissed her.

They met again--twice--before the regiment took the cars. It had been
settled that no announcement of the engagement should be made, but there
are some secrets mothers cannot keep, and there were not lacking men and
women to obtrude premature "congratulations" even on the day she came
with mothers, sisters, cousins, and sweethearts by the score to witness
the presentation of colors and say adieu. That afternoon the regimental
quartermaster returned from the city after a stay of thirty-six hours,
thirty of which were unauthorized, and it was rumored that Colonel
Raymond was very angry and had threatened extreme measures. It was this
prospect, possibly, that shrouded Mr. Hollins's face in gloom, but most
people were disposed to think that he had taken the engagement very much
to heart. There were many who considered that, despite the fact of his
lack of fortune, birth, and "position," Mr. Hollins had been treated
very shabbily by the heiress. There were a few who said that but for his
"lacks" she would have married him. What she herself said was something
that caused Mr. Abbot a good deal of wonderment and reflection.

"Paul, I want you to promise me another thing. Mr. Hollins has very few
friends in the regiment. He is poor, sensitive, and he feels it keenly.
He is our kinsman, though distant, and he placed me under obligations
abroad by his devotion to mother, and his courtesy to me when we needed
attention. He thinks you dislike him, as well as many of the others.
Remember what he is to us, and how hard a struggle he has had, and be
kind to him--for me."

And though his college remembrances of Mr. Hollins were not tinged with
romance, Paul Abbot was too glad and proud in the thought of going to
the front--too happy and prosperous, perhaps, to feel anything but pity
for the quartermaster's isolation. He made the promise, and found its
fulfilment, before they had been away a fortnight, a very irksome thing.
Hollins fairly lived at his tent and better men kept away. Gradually
they had drifted apart. Gradually the feeling of coldness and a