y absent yourself?' and _then_ how will you get out of it?"

The _matinees_, so called, were by no means unpopular features of the
daily routine. The officers were permitted to bring their pipes or
cigars and take their after-breakfast smoke in the big, roomy office of
the commander, just as they were permitted to enjoy the post-prandial
whiff when at evening recitation in the same office they sat around the
room, chatting in low tones, for half an hour, while the colonel
received the reports of his adjutant, the surgeon, and the old and the
new officer of the day. Then any matters affecting the discipline or
instruction or general interests of the command were brought up; both
sides of the question were presented, if question arose; the decision
was rendered then and there, and the officers were dismissed for the day
with the customary "That's all, gentlemen." They left the office well
knowing that only in the event of some sudden emergency would they be
called thither again or disturbed in their daily vocations until the
same hour on the following morning. Meantime, they must be about their
work: drills, if weather permitted; stable-duty, no matter what the
weather; garrison courts, boards of survey, the big general court that
was perennially dispensing justice at the post, and the long list of
minor but none the less exacting demands on the time and attention of
the subalterns and company commanders. The colonel was a strict, even
severe, disciplinarian, but he was cool, deliberate, and just. He
"worked" his officers, and thereby incurred the criticism of a few, but
held the respect of all. He had been a splendid cavalry-commander in the
field of all others where his sterling qualities were sure to find
responsive appreciation in his officers and men,--on active and stirring
campaigns against the Indians,--and among his own regiment he knew that
deep in their hearts the ----th respected and believed in him, even
when they growled at garrison exactions which seemed uncalled for. The
infantry officers knew less of him as a sterling campaigner, and were
not so well pleased with his discipline. It was all right for him to
"rout out" every mother's son in the cavalry at reveille, because all
the cavalry officers had to go to stables soon afterwards,--that was all
they were fit for,--but what on earth was the use of getting them--the
infantry--out of their warm beds before sunrise on a wintry morning and
having no end of ro