be engaged to him,
in your opinion, I am equally old enough to attend to such details as
these, in my own."

Mrs. Rayner stood one moment as though astounded; then she flew to the
door and relieved her surcharged bosom as follows, "Well, I pity the man
you marry, whether you are lucky enough to keep this one or not!" and
flounced indignantly out of the house.

When Captain Rayner came in, half an hour afterwards, the parlor was
deserted. He was looking worn and dispirited. Finding no one on the
ground-floor, he went to the foot of the stairs, and called,--

"Kate."

A door opened above: "Kate has gone out, captain."

"Do you know where, Nellie?"

"Over to the hospital, I think; though I cannot say."

She heard him sigh deeply, move irresolutely about the hall for a
moment, then turn and go out.

At his gate he found two figures dimly visible in the gathering
darkness: they had stopped on hearing his footstep. One was an officer
in uniform, wrapped in heavy overcoat, with a fur cap, and a bandage
over his eyes. The other was a Chinese servant, and it was the latter
who asked,--

"This Maje Waldlon's?"

"No," said he, hastily. "Major Waldron's is the third door beyond."

At the sound of his voice the officer quickly started, but spoke in low,
measured tone: "Straight ahead, Sam." And the Chinaman led him on.

Rayner stood a moment watching them, bitter thoughts coursing through
his mind. Mr. Hayne was evidently sufficiently recovered to be up and
out for air, and now he was being invited again. This time it was his
old comrade Waldron who honored him. Probably it was another dinner.
Little by little, at this rate, the time would soon come when Mr. Hayne
would be asked everywhere and he and his correspondingly dropped. He
turned miserably away, and went back to the billiard-rooms at the store.
When Mrs. Rayner rang her bell for tea that evening he had not
reappeared, and she sent a messenger for him.

It was a brilliant moonlit evening. A strong prairie gale had begun to
blow from the northwest, and was banging shutters and whirling pebbles
at a furious rate. At the sound of the trumpets wailing tattoo a brace
of young officers calling on the ladies took their leave. The captain
had retired to his den, or study, where he shut himself up a good deal
of late, and thither Mrs. Rayner followed him and closed the door after
her. Throwing a cloak over her shoulders, Miss Travers stepped out on
the piazza and gaz