prize? Maybe it is, but
she liked strangeness--and a stiff game.

V

HILARY?--YES, UNCLE?

Second half as well as first, the drill was ended. The low acacias and
great live-oaks were casting their longest shadows. The great plain
rested from the trample and whirl of hoofs, guns, and simulated battle.
A whiff of dust showed where the battery ambled townward among roadside
gardens, the Callender carriage spinning by it to hurry its three ladies
and Mandeville far away to the city's lower end. At the column's head
rode Irby in good spirits, having got large solace of Flora's society
since we last saw her paired with Kincaid. Now beside the tiny railway
station Hilary was with her once more as she and Charlie awaited the
train from town. Out afield were left only General Brodnax and
Greenleaf, dismounted between the Northerner's horse and Hilary's. Now
Kincaid came across the turf.

"Greenleaf," said the old soldier, "why does Hilary forever walk as
though he were bringing the best joke of the season? Can't you make him
quit it?"

The nephew joined them: "Uncle, if you'd like to borrow my horse I can
go by train."

That _was_ a joke. "H-m-m! I see! No, Greenleaf's going by train. Would
you like to ride with me?"

"Well, eh--ha! Why, uncle, I--why, of course, if Fred really--" They
mounted and went.

"Hilary?"

"Yes, uncle?"

"How is it now? Like my girl any better?"

"Why--yes! Oh, she's fine! And yet I--"

"You must say? What must you say?"

"Nothing much; only that she's not the kind to seem like the owner of a
field battery. My goodness! uncle, if she had half Miss Flora's tang--"

"She hasn't the least need of it! She's the quiet kind, sir, that fools
who love 'tang' overlook!"

"Yes," laughed Hilary, "she's quiet; quiet as a fortification by
moonlight! Poor Fred! I wish--"

"Well, thank God you wish in vain! That's just been settled. I asked
him--oh, don't look surprised at _me_. Good Lord! hadn't I the right to
know?"

The two rode some way in silence. "I wish," mused the nephew aloud, "it
could be as he wants it."

The uncle's smile was satirical: "Did you ever, my boy, wish anything
could be as _I_ want it?"

"Now, uncle, there's a big difference--"

"DAMN THE DIFFERENCE! I'm going to try you. I'm going to make Adolphe my
adjutant-general. Then if you hanker for this battery as it hankers for
you--"

"Mary, Queen of Scots!" rejoiced Hilary. "That'll suit us both to the
bone!