The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-03-09

"Well, suppose you will send men to
help him get those quarters into habita-
BILE shape?'
81 WILL of course, major, if he ask it.
don't propose sending men to do such
work for an officer unless the request
come"
''He is entitled to that consideration,
Rayner, and think tie men should be
sent to him. He is hardly likely to
ask"
"Then he is less likely to get them,"
said the captain, shortly, for, except the
post commander, he well knew that no
officer could order it to be done. He was
angry at the major for interfering. They
were old associates and had entered SER
vice almost at the same time, but his
friend had the better luck in promotion
and was now his battalion commander
Rayner made an excuse of stopping to
speak with the officer of the day, and
the major went on without him. He
was quiet old soldier; he wanted no
disturbance with his troubled friend,
and, like sensible man, he turned the
in a very few words, before the arrival
of the general audience 1t was this that
had caused the colonel to turn quietly to
Rayner and say, in the most matters of
fact way:
ooh, Capt. Rayner, presume Mr..
Hayne will need three or four men to
help him get his quarters in shape. l
suppose you have already thought to
send them?'
And Rayner flushed, and stammered,
"They have not gone yet, sir; but had
thought of it,
Later, when the sergeant sent the re-
quired detail he reported to the captain
in the company Office in five minutes:
''The lieutenant's compliments and
thanks, but he does not need the men,"
The dinner at the colonel's, quiet as it
was and with only eight at table, was an
| affair of almost momentous Importance
to Mr.. Hayne. 1t was the first thing of
the kind he had attended in five years,
and though he well knew that it was in
tended by the cavalry commander more
especially as recognition of the services
rendered their suffering men, he could
not but rejoice in the courtesy and tact
with which he was received and enter
tanned. The colonel's wife, the adiu-
tants, and those of two captains away
with the field battalion were the four ladies
who were there to greet him when, es-
corted by Mr.. Blake, he made his appear
ance. How long-how very long it
seemed to him since he had sat in me
presence of refined and attractive women
and listened to their gay and animated
chat! They seemed all such good friends,
they made him so thoroughly at home,
and they showed so rnuch tact and ease
! that never once did it seem apparent
that they knew of his trouble in his own
regiment; and yet there was no actual
avoidance of matters in which the Riflers
were generally interested.
1t was mainly of his brief visit to the
east, however, that they made him talk
of the operas and theatres he had attended,
the pictures he had seen, the music that
was most popular; and when dinner was
over their hostess led him to her piano,
and he played and sang for them again
and again. His voice was soft and sweet,
and, though it was uncultivated, he sang
with expression and grace, playing with
more skill but less feeling and effect than
he sang. Music and books had been the
solace of lonely years, and he could
easily see that he had pleased them with
his songs. He went home to the dreary
rookery out OH Prairie avenue and
laughed at the bowling wind The bare
grimy walls and the dim kerosene lamp,
even Sans unmelodious snore in the
back room, sent no gloom to his soul. 1t
had been happy evening. 1t had cost
him hard struggle to restrain the
emotion which he had felt at times: and
when he withdrew, soon after the
trumpets sounded tattoo, and the ladies
fell to discussing him, as women will,
there was but one verdict-his manners
were perfect.
| But the colonel said more than that.
He had found him far better read than
any other officer of his age he had ever
met: and one and all they expressed the
hope that they might see him frequently.
No wonder it was of momentous import
ance to him. 1t was the opening to a
new life. 1t meant that here at least he
had met soldiers anflnentlemen and their
fair and gracious wives who had well
coined him to their homes, and, though
they must have known that pail of sus-
picion and crime had overshadowed his
! OF fhnx hoI. 4 L
nocent of the grievous charge or that his
years of exile and suffering had amply
atoned. 1t was a happy evening indeed
/ to him; but there was gloom at Capt.
| Rayner's.
The captain himself had gone out soon
after tattoo. He found that the parlor
was filled with young visitors of both
sexes, and he was in no mood for merri-
ment. Miss Travers was being welcomed
to the post in genuine army style, and
was evidently enjoying it. Mrs. Rayner
was lifting nervously in and out of the
parlor with cloud upon her brow, and
for once in her life compelled to preserve
temporary silence upon the subject up
permost in her thoughts. She had been
forbidden to speak of it to her husband;
yet she knew he had gone out again with
every probability of needing some one
to talk to about the matter. She could
not well breach the topic in the parlor
because she was not at all sure how
Capt. and Mrs. Gregg of the cavalry
would take it; and they were still there.
She was loyal wife; her husbands
quarrel was hers and more, too; and she
/ was q woman of intuition even Leaner