re warmed if not ornamented, and she
perched her little, slippered feet upon the hearth, took her portfolio
in her lap, and began. Mrs. Rayner was in the nursery, absorbed with the
baby and the nurse, when a servant came and announced that "a lady was
in the kitchen" and wanted to speak with the lady of the house. Mrs.
Rayner promptly responded that she was busy and couldn't be disturbed,
and wondered who it could be that came to her kitchen to see her.

"Can I be of service, Kate?" called Miss Travers. "I will run down, if
you say so."

"I wish you would," was the reply; and Miss Travers put aside her
writing. "Didn't she give any name?" asked Mrs. Rayner of the Abigail,
who was standing with her head just visible at the stairway, it being
one of the unconquerable tenets of frontier domestics to go no farther
than is absolutely necessary in conveying messages of any kind; and this
damsel, though new to the neighborhood, was native and to the manner
born in all the tricks of the trade.

"She said you knew her name, ma'am. She's the lady from the hospital."

"Here, Jane, take the baby! Never mind, Nellie: I must go!" And Mrs.
Rayner started with surprising alacrity; but as she passed her door Miss
Travers saw the look of deep anxiety on her face.

A moment later she heard voices at the front door,--a party of ladies
who were going to spend the morning with the colonel's wife at some
"Dorcas society" work which many of them had embraced with enthusiasm.
"I want to see Miss Travers, just a minute," she heard a voice say, and
recognized the pleasant tones of Mrs. Curtis, the young wife of one of
the infantry officers: so a second time she put aside her writing, and
then ran down to the front door. Mrs. Curtis merely wanted to remind her
that she must be sure to come and spend the afternoon with her and bring
her music, and was dismayed to find that Miss Travers could not come
before stable-call: she had an engagement. "Of course: I might have
known it: you are besieged every hour. Well, can you come to-morrow?
Do." And, to-morrow being settled upon, and despite the fact that
several of the party waiting on the sidewalk looked cold and impatient,
Mrs. Curtis found it impossible to tear herself away until certain
utterly irrelevant matters had been lightly touched upon and lingeringly
abandoned. The officers were just beginning to pour forth from
head-quarters when the group of ladies finally got under way again and
Miss