is
moment I have come unnerved and weak from the presence of the
general with the fullest vindication man could ask. In the
first glow of thoughtfulness my thoughts turn instantly to you.
May God bless you for the words that came to bless me in my
darkest hours! May He teach me to show you--I can never tell
it--the infinite value of your words to me! May He so guide my
future that, henceforth, my life shall prove worthy the trust
you placed in me! Until it has, in some measure, so redeemed
the past, I may not say more. Only this: you, before all the
world, I desire to know of my acquittal of every allegation.
To-morrow I shall hope to see you before we march, for I shall
go at once to the regiment. There may be little opportunity for
words even if I dared trust myself to speak. Last time, in
laughing talk, it was agreed that I should wear your colors;
but now, even your will would be powerless to prevent me, for
my heart and soul are pledged to them forever.

"WILLIAM P. RAY."

Nor did he mean to "say more" when writing that letter. He meant that
she--he did not care _who_ else--should know that the thought of her
friendship and faith had been his mainstay in the troubles which had so
suddenly involved his life and wellnigh wrecked him. He wanted her to
know, and he did not care who knew, that from this time forth he was her
knight, sworn to her service, and bound to her by a tie he could not
break if he would. Seldom as they had met, there had been from the first
a halo of romance about their association, and she had come to be, even
before he could realize it, the one fair woman in whom was centred the
fealty and devotion of his loyal nature. He dare not hope: he would not
expect that one like her could so soon, so unsought, unwooed, have
learned to look upon him as anything more than a friend whose loyalty to
Grace, her one intimate, and whose friendship for Mrs. Stannard had
conspired to make him an object of interest in their daily talk. With
the humility of true manhood he well knew that his name, clouded with
the recklessness and debts of his past life, was not one that he dare
lay at her feet; but this, too, he knew, and knew well, and would have
faced the world to own it as fearlessly as he faced a foe: he loved
her, and, as yet, could ask nothing in return.

And yet, when Blake met him at the station next day