as if he felt that some awful desecration had been committed, for which
the full severity of the criminal law could scarcely be an adequate
punishment.

Not an instant, however, before the two young girls found recruits for
their "forward movement." Aunt Martha's handkerchief flew from her
mouth, and she laughed from cap to slipper. Mrs. Owen, thus deserted by
her reserve, caught the infection and laughed still louder than Aunt
Martha. Frank Wallace directly came in with a baritone which chimed well
with the soprano of the young girls and the contralto of the middle-aged
ladies. And Judge Owen, at last, having satisfied his judicial dignity
by keeping his gravity longer than any one else, rung in with a gruff
heavy bass that might have been contracted for in the damp vault of his
own court-room.

There are said to be some occasions in which the highest order of
eloquence is shown in total silence, and others in which the most
indomitable bravery is shown by immediately running away. Certainly this
was an opportunity for the display of the latter quality. Just when the
laugh had fairly burst, Colonel John Boadley Bancker clapped his hand
to his head, satisfied himself that the catastrophe had really occurred,
then made a grab at the wig and caught it out of the hands of his
tormentor, took three steps out of the room to the hat-rack in the hall,
and a few more out into the bright moonlight. Napoleon had left
Waterloo!

CHAPTER XXX.

THE LAST TIT-BITS OF THE BANQUET--SUBSEQUENT EVENTS IN THE HISTORIES OF
DIFFERENT CHARACTERS--A CAVALRY CHARGE AT ANTIETAM--AND THE END.

When the banquet is over, whether the guests have been fully satisfied
or the opposite, there may still remain a few trifles which must be
discussed, if the proper respect is to be shown to each other and the
entertainer. When a story is almost ended, there may still remain a
fragmentary portion, perhaps not altogether worthy of attention from
those who have so far followed the fortunes of the different personages
involved, and yet impossible to ignore without manifesting a disregard
of the whole entertainment. To that stage this narrative has reached,
and all that remains is a hasty grouping together of those closing
events for which all that have preceded them would seem to have been
intended by the fates that overruled them.

* * * * *

It will be remembered that Josephine Harris, when first recovered from