r lord. She well knew the reason of his
instructions.

"Did you show that scrap of lining?" she asked, a moment later, as they
stood alone before the parlor fire.

"They have it," was the answer. "I expect two of them out any moment."

And then had come the sudden summons to turn out, and with only brief
greeting to his daughter, and a hurried kiss and caress, Captain Sumter
had mounted and spurred away.

It must have been after twelve, for orderly call and mess had sounded in
front of the adjutant's office, when one of the hospital attendants came
floundering up the row from Lanier's, and made his way to Sumter's door,
a little note in his hand. He would wait, he said, for an answer, and
the maid bade him step inside while she ran up-stairs. Mrs. Sumter
answered her knock at the door of Miss Kate's room, into which the
damsels were now doubled. To the disappointment of that somewhat
volatile domestic, Mrs. Sumter closed the portal before proceeding to
open the missive, but her announcement, "From Mr. Lanier," caused Miriam
Arnold to sit bolt upright.

DEAR MRS. SUMTER [it read]:

I've been living since Saturday mainly on your kindness and that
delicious fruit. It was more than good of you to take such care of
your incarcerated sub, and I'm ashamed to have sent no earlier
thanks, but we've been banked in until this morning, and that
rascal striker of ours is missing. He hasn't been about the house
since Friday night. Like Barker's cow, he may have blown away. I
reckon they'll find him, her, and the paymaster's outfit snowed
under somewhere down toward Nebraska, safe, but possibly starving.
Schuchardt has gone with the command, so has Ennis, and I'm all
alone with nothing to read. If you have anything moral,
instructive, and guaranteed to soften the unrepentant sinner's
heart--something I could read with profit as well as
pleasure--_don't_ send it, but tell me how you all stood the storm
and how you are. It is so hard to get anything but admonition out
of "Shoe," and "Dad" is now more unreliable than ever.

I hope Miss Arnold is entirely recovered.
Yours most sincerely,
R. R. LANIER.

"The last thing a man mentions in a note is the first thing he wants
answered," said Mrs. Sumter sagely. "What shall I tell him for you,
Miriam?"

"Tell _me_ what is to be done to _him_