clique, and her imploring glance only the
result of a fear of exposure. Or, again, she might have truly recanted
after her escapade at Gray Oaks, and feared only his recollection of
her as go-between of spies. And yet both of these presumptions were
inconsistent with her conduct in the conservatory. It seemed impossible
that this impulsive woman, capable of doing what he had himself known
her to do, and equally sensitive to the shame or joy of such impulses,
should be the same conventional woman of society who had so coldly
recognized and parted from him.

But this interval of doubt was transitory. The next day he received a
dispatch from the War Department, ordering him to report himself for
duty at once. With a beating heart he hurried to the Secretary. But
that official had merely left a memorandum with his assistant directing
General Brant to accompany some fresh levies to a camp of "organization"
near the front. Brant felt a chill of disappointment. Duties of this
kind had been left to dubious regular army veterans, hurriedly
displaced general officers, and favored detrimentals. But if it was not
restoration, it was no longer inaction, and it was at least a release
from Washington.

It was also evidently the result of some influence--but hardly that
of the Boompointers, for he knew that Susy wished to keep him at
the Capital. Was there another power at work to send him away from
Washington? His previous doubts returned. Nor were they dissipated when
the chief of the bureau placed a letter before him with the remark that
it had been entrusted to him by a lady with the request that it should
be delivered only into his own hands.

"She did not know your hotel address, but ascertained you were to call
here. She said it was of some importance. There is no mystery about it,
General," continued the official with a mischievous glance at Brant's
handsome, perplexed face, "although it's from a very pretty woman--whom
we all know."

"Mrs. Boompointer?" suggested Brant, with affected lightness.

It was a maladroit speech. The official's face darkened.

"We have not yet become a Postal Department for the Boompointers,
General," he said dryly, "however great their influence elsewhere. It
was from rather a different style of woman--Miss Faulkner. You will
receive your papers later at your hotel, and leave to-night."

Brant's unlucky slip was still potent enough to divert the official
attention, or he would have noticed t