ust so many
more hours a day to their entertainment. There were two or three hops a
week over in the big assembly-room, and there was some talk of getting
up a german in honor of Miss Travers, but the strained relations
existing between Mrs. Rayner and the ladies of other families at the
post made the matter difficult of accomplishment. There were bright
little luncheon-, dinner-, and tea-parties, where the young officers and
the younger ladies met every day; and, besides all this, despite the
fact that Mrs. Rayner had at first shown a fixed determination to
discuss the rights and wrongs of "the Hayne affair," as it was now
beginning to be termed, with all comers who belonged to the Riflers, it
had grown to be a very general thing for the youngsters to drop in at
her house at all hours of the day; but that was because there were
attractions there which outweighed her combativeness. Then Rayner
himself overheard some comments on the mistake she was making, and
forbade her discussing the subject with the officers even of her own
regiment. She was indignant, and demanded a reason. He would name no
names, but told her that he had heard enough to convince him she was
doing him more harm than good, and, if anything, contributing to the
turn of the tide in Hayne's favor. Then she felt outraged and utterly
misjudged. It was a critical time for her, and if deprived of the use of
her main weapon of offence and defence the battle was sure to go amiss.
Sorely against her inclination, she obeyed her lord, for, as has been
said, she was a loyal wife, and for the time being the baby became the
recipient of her undivided attention.

True to her declaration, she behaved so coldly and with such marked
distance of manner to the colonel and his wife when they met in society
immediately after the dinner that the colonel quietly told his wife she
need not give either dinner or reception in honor of Mrs. Rayner's
return. He would like to have her do something to welcome Miss Travers,
for he thought the girl had much of her father in her. He knew him well
in the old days before and during the war, and liked him. He liked her
looks and her sweet, unaffected, cheery manner. He liked the contrast
between her and her sister; for Miss Travers had listened in silence to
her sister's exposition of what her manner should be to the colonel and
his wife, and when they met she was bright and winsome. The colonel
stood and talked with her about her father