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his wealth to bring it about, could it but have been accomplished without the dreadful admission, "I was wrong. I was _utterly_ wrong." He had grown lavish in hospitality; he had become almost aggressively open-handed to his comrades, and had sought to press money upon men who in no wise needed it. He was as eager to lend as some are to borrow, and his brother officers dubbed him "Midas" not because everything he touched would turn to gold, but because he would intrude his gold upon them at every turn. There were some who borrowed; and these he struggled not to let repay. He seemed to have an insane idea that if he could but get his regimental friends bound to him pecuniarily he could control their opinions and actions. It was making him sick at heart, and it made him in secret doubly vindictive and bitter against the man he had doomed to years of suffering. This showed out that very morning. Mrs. Rayner had begun to talk, and he turned fiercely upon her: "Not a word on that subject, Kate, if you love me!--not even the mention of his name! I must have peace in my own house. It is enough to have to talk of it elsewhere." Talk of it he had to. The major early that morning asked him, as they were going to the _matinee_,-- "Have you seen Hayne yet?" "Not since he reported on the parade yesterday," was the curt reply. "Well, I suppose you will send men to help him get those quarters in habitable shape?" "I will, of course, major, if he ask it. I don't propose sending men to do such work for an officer unless the request come." "He is entitled to that consideration, Rayner, and I think the men should be sent to him. He is hardly likely to ask." "Then he is less likely to get them," said the captain, shortly, for, except the post commander, he well knew that no officer could order it to be done. He was angry at the major for interfering. They were old associates, and had entered service almost at the same time, but his friend had the better luck in promotion and was now his battalion commander. Rayner made an excuse of stopping to speak with the officer of the day, and the major went on without him. He was a quiet old soldier: he wanted no disturbance with his troubled friend, and, like a sensible man, he turned the matter over to their common superior, in a very few words, before the arrival of the general audience. It was this that had caused the colonel to turn quietly to Rayner and say, in the most matte
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