im, or spoke cautiously; and Mrs. Owen
herself seemed, during Ware's last speech, to be a trifle restless. She
addressed some irrelevant remark to the admiral as they rose and
adjourned to the long side veranda where the men lighted cigars.

"I think I like this corner best," remarked Ware when the others had
disposed themselves. "Miss Sylvia, won't you sit by me?" She watched his
face as the match flamed to his cigar. It was deep-lined and rugged,
with high cheek bones, that showed plainly when he shut his jaws. It
occurred to Sylvia that but for his mustache his face would have been
almost typically Indian. She had seen somewhere a photograph of a Sioux
chief whose austere countenance was very like the minister's. Ware did
not fit into any of her preconceived ideas of the clerical office. Dr.
Wandless, the retired president of Madison College, was a minister, and
any one would have known it, for the fact was proclaimed by his dress
and manner; he might, in the most casual meeting on the campus, have
raised his hands in benediction without doing anything at all
extraordinary. Ware belonged to a strikingly different order, and Sylvia
did not understand him. He had been a soldier; and Sylvia could not
imagine Dr. Wandless in a cavalry charge. Ware flung the match-stick
away and settled himself comfortably into his chair. The others were
talking amongst themselves of old times, and Sylvia experienced a sense
of ease and security in the minister's company.

"Those people across there are talking of the Hoosiers that used to be,
and about the good folks who came into the wilderness and made Indiana a
commonwealth. I'm a pilgrim and a stranger comparatively speaking. I'm
not a Hoosier; are you?"

"No, Mr. Ware; I was born in New York City."

"Ho! I might have known there was some sort of tie between us. I was
born in New York myself--'way up in the Adirondack country. You've heard
of Old John Brown? My father's farm was only an hour's march from
Brown's place. I used to see the old man, and it wasn't my fault I
wasn't mixed up in some of his scrapes. Father caught me and took me
home--didn't see any reason why I should go off and get killed with a
crazy man. Didn't know Brown was going to be immortal."

"There must have been a good many people that didn't know it," Sylvia
responded.

She hoped that Ware would talk of himself and of the war; but in a
moment his thoughts took a new direction.

"Stars are fine to-night.