------------------------+
| |
| _M. Philippe Lascelles_, |
| |
| |
| _N'lle Orleans_.|
+--------------------------------+

"Why, what is it, Waring?" asked Cram, anxiously, bending down from his
saddle.

For a moment Waring was silent. Mrs. Cram felt her own hand trembling.

"Can you turn the battery over to Ferry and come with me?" asked the
lieutenant.

"Certainly.--Bugler, report to Lieutenant Ferry and tell him I shall
have to be absent for a while.--Drive on, Nell."

When, five minutes later, Waring was assisted up the stair-way, Cram
towering on his right, the little party came upon a group of
strangers,--three gentlemen, one of whom stepped courteously forward,
raising his hat in a black-gloved hand. He was of medium height,
slender, erect, and soldierly in bearing; his face was dark and oval,
his eyes large, deep, and full of light. He spoke mainly in English,
but with marked accent, and the voice was soft and melodious:

"I fear I have intrude. Have I the honor to address Lieutenant Waring? I
am Philippe Lascelles."

For a moment Waring was too amazed to speak. At last, with brightening
face and holding forth his hand, he said,--

"I am most glad to meet you,--to know that it was not you who drove down
with us that night."

"Alas, no! I left Armand but that very morning, returning to Havana,
thence going to Santiago. It was not until five days ago the news
reached me. It is of that stranger I come to ask."

It was an odd council gathered there in Waring's room in the old
barracks that April morning while Ferry was drilling the battery to his
heart's content and the infantry companies were wearily going over the
manual or bayonet exercise. Old Brax had been sent for, and came.
Monsieur Lascelles's friends, both, like himself, soldiers of the South,
were presented, and for their information Waring's story was again told,
with only most delicate allusion to certain incidents which might be
considered as reflecting on the character and dignity of the elder
brother. And then Philippe told his. True, there had been certain
transactions between Armand and himself. He had fully trusted his
brother, a man of affairs, with the management of the little inheritance
which he, a soldier, had no idea how to handle, and Armand's business
had suffered greatly by the war