r opinions. That Dr. Bayard was "smitten"
with Fanny Forrest was something they had seen from the start, but that
brilliant and most incomprehensible young woman had on more than one
occasion treated him with marked coldness and aversion. What was the
matter? Had he been too precipitate in his wooing? Twice since Hatton
returned with his little escort, bringing in the wounded, had Miss
Forrest declined Dr. Bayard's arm, and, on the other hand, while she
seemed to repel the senior, she was now showing a marked interest in
his junior,--the attendant of the wounded officers. Twice while Dr.
Bayard was known to be visiting at the Forrests', she was seen to come
forth, and, after an irresolute glance up and down the walk, as though
she had no other purpose in venturing out than to escape from her
elderly admirer, the young lady had walked down the path away from the
officers' quarters and disappeared from view in the direction of the
trader's store. Some of the ladies were beginning to believe that,
_faute de mieux_, the doctor was consoling himself in a flirtation
with his lackadaisical patient; but it was speedily noted that he
stayed only a few moments when Miss Forrest left the premises, and the
idea was as speedily scouted by the entire sisterhood, unless, indeed,
we except the lady herself. Poor Mrs. Forrest! In these days of her
faded beauty, she could not forget the fact that it was only a few
years before that her rosebud complexion and tender blue eyes had been
the cause of many a heartache among the young fellows in the garrison
where she, the only damsel, reigned supreme; and lives there a woman
who, having once queened it over the hearts of the opposite sex, can
quite abandon the idea that her powers still exist?

Knowing, from plain declarations to that effect, that her spirited
sister-in-law totally disapproved of Dr. Bayard after a conversation
held with him the night McLean was returned to the post, Mrs. Forrest
was fain to flatter herself that these frequent visits to her were
impelled by an interest transcending the professional and rapidly
becoming sentimental. It really did her good; gave her something to
think about besides her woes; rescued her from the slatternly ways into
which she was falling and restored a faded coquetry to her dress and
mien; brightened her dreary eyes and lent color to her pallid cheek,
and prompted her to surround herself with those domestic barricades
against unhallowed glances