lison
herself, brought back on their train,--in their carriage, as he learned
from Aunt Lawrence,--and apparently more influential with the father and
daughter than ever before. Not until luncheon-time that day did he know
of this, and the news came like a dash of ice-water on shivering skin.
It was plain that Mrs. Lawrence looked to him to defend his statement
and name his authorities then and there; for Miss Allison did not come
down to luncheon, Cary was speedily excused and permitted to go about
his own affairs, and then Mrs. Lawrence whirled upon the tutor with the
tidings that not only was Mr. Forrest back, but that Florence had
brought him back; that Mr. Allison, so far from objecting, had
approved--had invited him to lunch with his fellow-magnates at the club
and to dine _en famille_ in the evening. As for Mr. Forrest being under
the ban of official censure, Mrs. Lawrence declared she couldn't
understand it, in view of the fact that he was with the general and his
staff when the party encountered them at Wichita, and that the general
himself had authorized his return to Chicago. "Authorized!" said
Elmendorf, with his ready sneer; "_ordered_, very probably, with the
view of having him tried by court-martial here where the witnesses are
ready; and Mr. Forrest has had the effrontery to saddle himself on
respectable company by way of establishing high connection to start
with. I have heard of just such expedients before. My informants are
men who thoroughly know the ins and outs of military affairs in the
department, and they are not likely to be mistaken." All the same the
tutor was glad to get away and to go post-haste to the Pullman building,
hoping to catch his one intimate in the clerical force and to dodge the
officials with whom he stood in evil odor. Luck often follows audacity.
In the elevator he met two officers to whom he had been presented during
the earlier days of his tutorship, when he was still cordially received.
These gentlemen had been away on duty in the interim, and, knowing
nothing of his lapse from grace, greeted him as pleasantly as ever,
invited him into the aide-de-camps' offices, and there made him at home
in the absence of the usual occupants. They knew nothing of Forrest's
movements beyond the fact that he had not been with his regiment at all.
One of the two was Major Cranston; the other was Lieutenant-Colonel
Kenyon, of Forrest's own regiment. "I suppose you know he--left here
under ver