The Advocate and news., 1898-11-23
Dv J,O.llVNNcOTT. cONAPA'IV !

can clean II up IN ten minutes, ana you
are most welcome"
"It won't put you out in any way?"
asked Barclay, without the comment Of
an uplifted eyebrow on the evidence ad.
duced.
"Not 80 much as poker, If it does at
all, +" said Brayton promptly. He was
determined his captain should know the
extent Of his frailties at the start
Barclay smiled quietly and turned to
the boy with liking in his eye. "I'm
hardly ten years your senior, Brayton,
said he, "and SO shall not preach, but /
believe we can put that room to little
better use."
The next day he took his seat at the
bachelors mess, where q dozen officers
were congregated, all Of them but two
his juniors in rank. The sideboard was
lavishly decked with the indispensables
Of that benighted day. The old timers
and the new took their anteprandial
cocktail or toddy and Hospitality invited
Barclay to join. Barclay smiled CRATE
fully, but said he had "never yet got in
the way Of it somehow" nor did he
more than sip at the bordeaux which
tho presiding officer ordered served in
honor Of the occasion. The mess was
rather silent. Most men seemed desirous
Of listening to Barclay when he spoke
at all. They knew every twist and turn
Of each others mode of speech by that
time and could repeat verbatim every
story in the combination. Barclay might
have something new, but if he did he
had no chance. Captain Follansbee took
and kept the floor from first to last He
was airing his views on the subject Of
consolidation, reorganization and puri-
ication as praotiCed at the war depart
ment, a topic which the others consid-
cred inexousable not 80 much from the
fact that it must be most unpalatable to
Captain Barclay, a beneficiary of the
business, as it turned out, as because
Follansbee had worn them all out with
it weeks before.
And, to eVerybody's surprise, so far
from seeming annoyed or embarrassed
or bored, Barclay led him on from point
to point and, even after coffee was serv-
ed, sat an apparently absorbed listener,
for by that time Follansbee had absorb
ed most Of the Claret and was dilating
on the matter with especial reference to
the case Of Colonel Lawrence. Later
shat evening Barclay spent an hour at
the Blythes', and two days after he and
Brayton dined there.
Il was o'clock dinner. The doctor
and his wife, Major and Mrs. Brooks,
Miss Frazier and Miss Amanda Frazier,
were the other guests. Those were the
days when officers of all grades wore
epaulets when in full uniform, but, ex.
oept in one or two swell messes, full
dress was not considered requisite for
either dinner or hops The men wore
the uniform frock coat with shoulder
straps. Some few privileged characters
even dared toappear In sack coat with
white tie. Such thing as the evening
dress Of civil life was unknown at o
military post and unOwned in the
fighting force of the army, outside per.
haps Of the artillery. The doctor was
privileged character, a man who said
what he thought and did what he
thought right, and when Mrs. Blythe.
glanoing out Of her parlor window, saw
their favored friend and medical adviser
coming along the walk, his hands deep
in his trousers pockets and himself in
fit Of abstraction and q new sack coat,
while the partner Of his joys and sor.
rows ohatted briskly with the Frazier
girls, Mrs Blythe called up stairs to
her massive liege lord, "Wear your
blouse, dear; the doctor has ON his"
whereupon Blythe slipped out Of the