Bravely though she bore herself, the flush that mantled her
cheek was but momentary, and left her pallid and wan. Miriam looked as
though she had been seriously ill. Kate Sumter had given him only
hurried and almost embarrassed words of greeting. Mrs. Sumter, however,
had extended both her hands in an impulse of loyal liking and
friendship, and it is doubtful if Bob even saw the daughter's face.
Certainly he never noted the lack of heart in her manner. His eyes had
flitted almost instantly to Miriam Arnold's, and there they hung. A few
minutes of swift, purposeless chat ensued, Mrs. Stannard and Mrs. Sumter
doing most of it. Then, somehow, three women seemed to drift away and
become engrossed in matters of their own over by the Navajo-covered
lounge, and then Miriam lifted up her eyes and looked one moment into
the young soldier's face.

The bandages had been removed, though his left hand was still encased in
a huge white kid glove, a discard from the hand of Ennis. Eyebrows and
mustache had suffered much, and a red streak ran from the left temple
down toward the neck, yet Bob looked fit and debonair and happy in
spite of his weight of martial woes.

"It's the first chance I've had to thank you for the dance we--didn't
finish," said he, noting with a thrill the tremor of the little hand
that fluttered for that moment in his grasp.

"Do you think it a thing to be thankful for? I don't."

"I wouldn't have lost it for a month's pay, to put it mildly, and it
will take more than a month's pay to repair later damages," said he,
trying to smile and be unsentimental.

"How very much more than that you _may_ lose!" said she. "Do you think I
could have danced with you if I had dreamed what--what you were doing?"

"You were dancing like a dream," said he. "Do you mean I was dancing
like a nightmare?"

"You were doing what was sure to involve you in grave trouble, and--it
wasn't kind to me, Mr. Lanier."

"I'm all contrition for the anxiety it caused you, Miss Miriam, and for
absolutely nothing else. I wish you to know that I did nothing unusual.
Colonel Button was angry with me for a very different matter."

One moment she was silent; then, with lips that quivered in spite of her
effort--a quiver that he saw and that set his heart to bounding
madly--with lowered voice she hurried on: "And that, too, involves me,
or mine. And you"--then uplifting her swimming eyes--"you _would_ not
tell."

And then the barrier of his pr