the case had proved a singular “poser.”  It occurred during the temporary absence of the colonel:  he could not well place the captain under arrest for things he had done when acting as post commander.  In obedience to his orders from department head-quarters, he made his report of the affair, and indicated that Captain Buxton’s conduct had been inexcusable.  Rayner had done nothing but, as was proved, reluctantly obey the captain’s orders, so he could not be tried.  Hayne, who had committed one of the most serious crimes in the military catalogue,—­that of drawing and raising a weapon against an officer who was in discharge of his duty (Rayner),—­had the sympathy of the whole command, and nobody would prefer charges against him.  The general decided to have the report go up to division head-quarters, and thence it went with its varied comments and endorsements to Washington:  and now a court of inquiry was talked of.  Meantime, poor bewildered Buxton was let severely alone.  What made him utterly miserable was the fact that in his own regiment, the ——­th, nobody spoke of it except as something that everybody knew was sure to happen the moment he got in command.  If it hadn’t been that ’twould have been something else.  The only certainty was that Buxton would never lose a chance of making an ass of himself.  Instead of being furious with him, the whole regiment—­officers and men—­simply ridiculed and laughed at him.  He had talked of preferring charges against Blake for insubordination, and asked the adjutant what he thought of it.  It was the first time he had spoken to the adjutant for weeks, and the adjutant rushed out of the office to tell the crowd to come in and “hear Buxton’s latest.”  It began to look as though nothing serious would ever come of the affair, until Rayner reappeared and people saw how very ill he was.  Dr. Pease had been consulted; and it was settled that he as well as his wife must go away for several months and have complete rest and change.  It was decided that they would leave by the 1st of May.  All this Mr. Hayne heard through his kind friend Mrs. Waldron.

One day when he first began to sit up, and before he had been out at all, she came and sat with him in his sunshiny parlor.  There had been a silence for a moment as she looked around upon the few pictures and upon that bareness and coldness which, do what he will, no man can eradicate from his abiding-place until he calls in the deft and dainty hand of woman.

“I shall be so glad when you have a wife, Mr. Hayne!” was her quiet comment.

“So shall I, Mrs. Waldron,” was the response.

“And isn’t it high time we were beginning to hear of a choice?  Forgive my intrusiveness, but that was the very matter of which the major and I were talking as he brought me over.”

“There is something to be done first, Mrs. Waldron,” he answered.  “I cannot offer any woman a clouded name.  It is not enough that people should begin to believe that I was innocent and my persecutors utterly in error, if not perjured.  I must be able to show who was the real culprit, and that is not easy.  The doctor and I thought we saw a way not long ago; but it proved delusive.”  And he sighed deeply.  “I had expected to see the major about it the very day he got back from the court; but we have had no chance to talk.”