the table by her side,
"and--opportunity, if I read the signs aright, and we must get you
thoroughly well before you begin. Ah! What's that? What's the matter
over there?" he lazily asked. It was a fad of the doctor's never to
permit himself to show the least haste or excitement.

A small opera-glass stood on the sill, and, calmly adjusting it as he
peered, Frank had picked it up and levelled it towards the front and
centre of the line just back of where the colonel commanding sat in
saddle. A lively scuffle and commotion had suddenly begun among the
groups of spectators. Miss Ray's reclining-chair was so placed that by
merely raising her head she could look out over the field. Mrs. Brent
ran to where the colonel's field-glasses hung in their leathern case and
joined the doctor at the gallery rail.

Three pairs of eyes were gazing fixedly at the point of disturbance,
already the centre of a surging crowd of soldiers off duty, oblivious
now to the fact that the band was playing the "Star-Spangled Banner,"
and they ought to be standing at attention, hats off, and facing the
flag as it came floating slowly to earth on the distant ramparts of the
old city.

Disdainful of outside attractions, the adjutant came stalking out to
the front as the strain ceased, and his shrill voice was heard turning
over the parade to his commander. Then the surging group seemed to
begin to dissolve, many following a little knot of men carrying on
their shoulders an apparently inanimate form. They moved in the
direction of the old botanical garden, towards the Estado Mayor, and
so absorbed were the three in trying to fathom the cause of the
excitement that they were deaf to Ignacio's announcement. A tall,
handsome, most distinguished-looking young officer stood at the wide
door-way, dressed _cap-a-pie_ in snowy white, and not until, after a
moment's hesitation, he stepped within the room and was almost upon
them, did Miss Ray turn and see him.

"Why, Mr. Stuyvesant!" was all she said; but the tone was enough. Mrs.
Brent and the doctor dropped the glasses and whirled about. Both
instantly noted the access of color. It had not all disappeared by any
means, though the doctor had, when, ten minutes later, Colonel Brent
came in.

At the moment of his entrance, Stuyvesant, seated close to Marion's
reclining-chair, was, with all the doctor's caution and curiosity,
examining her revolver. "Rather bulky for a pocket-pistol," he remarked,
as, muzzl