es, a little too small and not always direct in their glance, but only
close observers would have been able to make the latter discovery. Had
he been wise, he would have worn something more than the full moustache
and military side-whiskers, for the under lip and chin being close
shaven the play of the muscles of the lip, and its shape, were visible.
The lip was heavy and sullen, if not cruel; and any one who watched him
closely enough (close as Josephine Harris had sometimes been watching
him, say!) could see that the under lip had an almost constant twitching
motion, and that the hands, when unoccupied, were always opening and
shutting themselves much too often for a mind at ease. He was dressed in
the full regulation blue uniform, with fatigue-cap, in spite of the heat
of the weather, and with the eagle on shoulder and the red belts and
gilt hook at waist suggesting the sword that was to come some time or
other.

Miss Bell or Isabella Crawford, sister of Richard, who made her
appearance with the Colonel after her more or less successful search
for the peculiar shade of cerise ribbon,--demands a word of description,
and only a word. She was of medium height, well formed and rather plump,
with a pleasantly-moulded face and dark hair and eyes, undeniably
handsome and ladylike, but with something weak and languid about the
mouth, and indefinably creating the impression of a woman incapable of
being quite content with affairs as they came, unless they came very
pleasantly and fashionably, or of making any well-directed effort to
improve them. She was faultlessly dressed and irreproachably gloved, and
a close observer would have judged, after a minute inspection, that she
would be better at home in the pleasant idleness of a ball or an
opera-matinee than where she might be required either to do or to bear.

"A nice couple and belong together! Neither one of them good for
anything!" had more than once been Joe Harris' irreverent comment, when
looking at them as they entered or left carriage or ball room, a little
earlier in her acquaintance and when she had not yet enjoyed so many
opportunities for studying the peculiar character of Col. Egbert
Crawford. Just now she would have had her doubts about sacrificing even
the useless Bell to a man whom she herself began to dislike so much.

"How do you feel, brother?" asked the sister as she came in,--evidently
more as a matter of duty than because she felt any peculiar interest