y Mrs.
Miller had brought with her own hands. She had hoped to find him in
better spirits, and was distressed to see how downcast and listless he
was. Just what evil spell had fallen upon the garrison Mrs. Miller
could not explain. The major for two or three days had been utterly
unlike himself, and would give her no good reason. The cavalry
battalion that had reached the post and gone into camp down on the
flats to the north was almost ready to push on toward the Black Hills,
and though she had twice reminded him that he ought at least to invite
the field and staff officers to dinner, her usually social spouse had
declined, saying he felt utterly unequal to it. The lethargy and gloom
at post "head-quarters" seemed to pervade the entire garrison. Nobody
felt like doing anything to dispel it. The band played blithely enough
at guard-mounting and again in the sunshiny afternoons, but nobody came
out and danced on the broad piazzas as used to be the way at Laramie.
Nellie Bayard was beginning to sit out on the veranda in a big
easy-chair with Janet Bruce as her constant companion, and the Gordon
girls, those indomitably jolly creatures, as occasional visitors; but
as Miss Kate, the elder, expressed herself, "Laramie is nothing but one
big hospital now. The women and children are the only able-bodied men
in it." Nellie was kind and civil, and tried to be cordial to them, but
they were "smart" enough to see she had no heart for rattling small
talk and crisp comments on matters and things at the post, and much
preferred to be left alone to her undisturbed confidential chats with
"Bonnie Jean." Blunt was slowly mending, and Dr. Weeks was having a
little rest after an anxious week, when his services were demanded for
another patient in Bedlam,--no less a person than the queen herself.

In view of the fact that Dr. Bayard was the recognized family physician
and had been and was still assiduously attending Mrs. Forrest, it was
considered nothing short of an intentional slight on the young lady's
part that she should send for Weeks. It was Mrs. Post who came over to
Blunt's door when she knew the junior doctor was there, and asked him
to come with her and see Miss Forrest. For two days the latter had been
confined to her room refusing to see any physician, and declaring that
in Mrs. Post's ministrations she found all the physic she needed, but
now the time seemed to have come when medical aid was really necessary.
Dr. Bayard's fac