his eyes were
glowing upon her. She knew there was no earthly excuse for such absurd
sensations. She knew that it was highly unconventional to experience
any such difficulty of expression where acquaintance had been so brief;
but was there, after all, anything unwomanly in letting him see that she
was proud of him,--of his friendship, his daring? Had not every other
woman gushed over him and called him splendid and some of them "lovely,"
while she had never yet dared speak of it at all? He had simply laughed
off their adulation; but he was not laughing now. She never saw such
intensity in his face. Why! this very silence was dangerous,
distracting. If she--she cared for him she could not be more nervous and
shy. With sudden effort she looked up in his face.

"You? Why, Mr. Ray, I never think of one without the other. How could I
tell you," she broke forth impulsively, "how simply splendid I thought
you--both?"

And now, with flaming cheeks, she turned and ran into the house, leaving
him all astir with delight at the gate.

And yet when he called that evening to inquire after Mrs. Truscott, and
Marion, with Mrs. Stannard, received him in the parlor, she was all
animation, self-possession, and mistress of the situation again. Even
when Mrs. Stannard found means to leave them alone, Ray could find no
pretext for diverting the talk into the delicious channel in which it
flowed at sunset. Perhaps, after all, it was only the glow of departing
day, like the throes of the dying dolphin lending hectic radiance to his
colors, that so dazzlingly, bewilderingly, beautifully tinged the
current of her words, and gave him glimpses of a heaven of hope his
wildest dream had never pictured.

But Mr. Ray had still a stern duty for that night. Having disposed of
Gleason during the afternoon, he had sent for the soldier Wolf, but was
told he would be on pass until tattoo. Until he had sifted the matter to
the bottom he would not know how to proceed with regard to Gleason.
Charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, court-martial
and publicity, were not to be thought of as involving her name in such a
scandal. After what she had said of Wolf, his first theory--that it was
all a forgery of Gleason's--was abandoned. He must see Wolf, obtain from
him any similar letter he might have, clearly point out to him the
madness of his conduct, and satisfy himself whether indeed Wolf might
not be insane. Immediately after tattoo, there