Acting
Assistant Surgeon Burroughs occupied the rear room aloft, and had he
chosen to fight for his rights, would probably have been accorded the
entire floor, but like everybody else he was eager to make everything
pleasant for the bride. Davies had expected no such luck, and had duly
explained to her that a combined dining-, sitting-, and bedroom, and an
out-door kitchen was absolutely all that they could expect, and more
than they were really entitled to. But Almira had enthusiastically
declared, as she had written, that even an Indian lodge in some vast
wilderness she would rather share with her Percy than a palace with a
prince royal. That there was a halo of romance about this marriage was
something everybody in the Fortieth had heard and many in the Eleventh
believed. All manner of theories and not a few stories had been put in
circulation, and no end of questions propounded of Captain Cranston's
household--who were believed to know all the facts--and not a few of the
fair bride herself, who showed no unreadiness to enter into particulars,
but had evidently been cautioned to curb her confidences. Taking a leaf
from the journalism of the day, let us congratulate the reader on having
now laid before him or her the first and only authentic record of the
facts in the case,--let us proudly await the commendation due their
herald.

It was no part of Percy Davies's plan when he left the roof of his
devoted nurses at Cameron to return to the regiment within two months a
married man, but other forces had been at work. A halo of heroism had
been thrown about his head by the events of the summer. The papers of
his State had made much of his prompt and soldierly tender of service.
It was before the day of illustrated daily journalism, or his picture
might have appeared in several papers, all, presumably, copies from the
same photograph, and no two of them recognizably alike. According to
local predictions he was on the high-road to fame, rank, and promotion,
and Almira's romance was redoubled, and her importance in the community,
in her own eyes at least, immeasurably enhanced. One paper indeed had
referred poetically to the lovely bride from whose entwining arms at the
call of duty the heroic youth had torn himself, and the pen-picture
drawn of Almira was as flattering as the wood-cut might have been
frightful. Then something occurred that turned her head as nothing had
before. Who should write to her but rich Aunt Almira,