ame to me," said
the doctor, nervously.

"That seems to complicate the matter. If it were a mere flirtation by
letter, such as is occasionally going on, _then_ somebody might have
borrowed his name and stolen his photograph; but I don't see how he
could have secured the replies--the girl's letters--in such a case. No.
As you say, doctor, that wasn't apt to be the solution, though I'm at a
loss to account for the letters that came from you. They were addressed
to Lieutenant Abbot, camp of the--th Massachusetts, you tell me, and
Abbot declares he has never heard from any one of your name, or had a
letter from Hastings. He would be the last man, too, to get into a
correspondence with a woman--for he is engaged."

The doctor starts again as though stung a second time. Was there not in
one of those letters a paragraph over which his sweet daughter had
blushed painfully as she strove to read it aloud? Did it not speak of an
entanglement that once existed; an affair in which his heart had never
been enlisted, but where family considerations and parental wishes had
conspired to bring about a temporary "understanding"? The cabriolet is
bouncing about on the cobblestones of the old-fashioned street, and the
doctor is thankful for the physical jar. Another moment and they draw
up at the door of the old Maryland hostelry, and the colonel steps out
and assists his companion to alight.

"Let me take you to your room now, doctor; then I'll have our staff
surgeon come over and see you. It has been a shock which would break a
younger man--"

But the old gentleman has nerved himself for the struggle. First and
foremost--no one must follow him to his room--none suspect the trial
there awaiting him. He turns sadly, but with decision.

"Colonel, I cannot thank you now as you deserve; once home, I will
write, but now what I need is absolute rest a little while. I am
stunned, bewildered. I must think this out, and my best plan is to get
to sleep first. Forgive me, sir, for my apparent discourtesy, and do not
take it amiss if I say that for a few moments--for the present--I should
like to be alone. We--we will meet again, sir, if it rest with me, and I
will write. Good-night, colonel. Good-night, sir."

And he turns hurriedly away. For a moment the soldier stands uncertain
what to do. Then he enters the hallway determined to bespeak the best
offices of the host in behalf of his stricken friend. There is a broad
stairway some distance ba