-the men in their full-dress uniforms, except, of course,
their civilian friend,--the ladies in their most becoming dinner
toilet. Despite her growing unpopularity every eye was turned (with
eagerness on the part of the women and Dr. Bayard) when Miss Forrest's
silken skirts came sweeping down the stairs. Her _entree_ was a
triumph.

"Thought you said her neck showed her age," whispered the major to his
better half. "Why, her neck and arms are superb!" a speech that cost
him metaphorical salt in his coffee for the next three days. The doctor
stepped forward in his most graceful manner to meet and welcome her.
Captain Bruce could not refrain from hobbling up and saying a word of
admiration; even Mr. Holmes fixed his dark eyes upon her in
unmistakable approval, and spoke a few courteous words before he turned
back to Nellie's side; and Mrs. Miller unlimbered her eye-glasses,
mounted them on her prominent nose, gazed long and earnestly at the
self-possessed young woman who was the centre of the group, and then
looked for sympathy to Mrs. Bruce--and found it. Never in her life had
Fanny Forrest looked better than she did that night. Her eyes, her
color, her smiles were radiance itself; her mobile lips curved over
teeth as white and gleaming as crystalled snow. Her bare neck and arms,
beautifully moulded, were set off to wonderful advantage by the dress
she wore,--a marvellous gown of rich, rare, lustrous black silk, that
fell from her rounded hips in sweeping folds that the women could not
sufficiently admire, while their eyes gloated over the wealth of gold
with which the entire front from the bosom to the very hem of the skirt
was heavily embroidered. An aigrette of gold shone in the dark masses
of her hair, but not a vestige of gold or gems appeared either at her
throat or in her ears. In her jewelled hand she carried a fan of black
silk, gold embroidered like her dress, and the tiny slippers that
peeped from the hem of her robe were of the same material and
embroidered in a miniature of the same pattern.

"Fort Laramie never saw anything handsomer than that toilet," whispered
Mrs. Bruce to the major's wife at the earliest opportunity; and the
latter, kind soul, was sufficiently melted by the sight to think of her
neighbors and say, "How I wish Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Wells were here to
see it!"

The dinner went off merrily as chimes a marriage-bell. The doctor was
in his element when presiding at a well-appointed table;