it so lovely for me here
that I can do it without a sigh. Think of that!--an army german!--and
Fanny Craven says the favors are to be simply lovely. Yes, I _did_ want
to go, but papa said he felt unequal to it the moment he got back from
Chicago, day before yesterday, and he certainly does not look at all
well: so that ended it, and I wrote at once to Mrs. Hoyt. This is her
answer now."

"What does she say?"

"Oh, it is very kind of her: she wants me to come and be her guest if
the colonel is too ill to come and mamma will not leave him. She says
Mr. Hoyt will come down and escort me. But I would not like to go
without mamma," and the big dark eyes looked up wistfully, "and I know
she does not care to urge papa when he seems so indisposed to going."

Mrs. Maynard's eyes were anxious and troubled now. She turned to her
sister-in-law:

"Do you think he seems any better, Grace? I do not."

"It is hard to say. He was so nervously anxious to get away to see the
general the very day you arrived here that there was not a moment in
which I could ask him about himself; and since his return he has avoided
all mention of it beyond saying it is nothing but indigestion and he
would be all right in a few days. I never knew him to suffer in that way
in my life. Is there any regimental matter that can be troubling him?"
she asked, in lower tone.

"Nothing of any consequence whatever. Of course the officers feel
chagrined over their defeat in the rifle-match. They had expected to
stand very high, but Mr. Jerrold's shooting was unexpectedly below the
average, and it threw their team behind. But the colonel didn't make the
faintest allusion to it. That hasn't worried him anywhere near as much
as it has the others, I should judge."

"I do not think it was all Mr. Jerrold's fault, mamma," said Miss
Renwick, with gentle reproach and a very becoming flush. "I'm going to
stand up for him, because I think they all blame him for other men's
poor work. He was not the only one on our team whose shooting was below
former scores."

"They claim that none fell so far below their expectations as he, Alice.
You know I am no judge of such matters, but Mr. Hoyt and Captain Gray
both write the colonel that Mr. Jerrold had been taking no care of
himself whatever and was entirely out of form."

"In any event I'm glad the cavalry did no better," was Miss Renwick's
loyal response. "You remember the evening we rode out to the range and
Captain Gray