"He did!--left the post and left a note for me? Why!----" But here Braxton broke off short, tore open the note, and read:
"MY DEAR COLONEL,--I trust you will overlook the informality of my going to town without previously consulting you. I had purposed, of course, asking your permission, but the mishap that befell me in the runaway of my horse prevented my appearance at the review, and had I waited your return from the field it would have compelled me to break my engagement with our friends the Allertons. Under the circ.u.mstances I felt sure of your complaisance.
"As I hope to drive Miss Allerton down after the _matinee_, might it not be a good idea to have dress-parade and the band out? They have seen the battery drills, but are much more desirous of seeing the infantry.
"Most sincerely yours, "S. G. WARING."
"Well, for consummate impudence this beats the Jews!" exclaimed Brax.
"Orderly, my compliments to Captain Cram, and say I wish to see him at once, if he"s back from stables."
Now, as has been said, Cram had had no time to change to undress uniform, but Mrs. Cram had received the orderly"s message, had informed that martial Mercury that the captain was not yet back from stables, and that she would tell him at once on his return. Well she knew that mischief was brewing, and her woman"s wit was already enlisted in behalf of her friend. Hurriedly pencilling a note, she sent a messenger to her liege, still busy with his horses, to bid him come to her, if only for a moment, on his way to the office. And when he came, heated, tired, but bubbling over with eagerness to tell her of the fun they had been having with Brax, she met him with a cool tankard of "shandygaff," which he had learned to like in England among the horse-artillery fellows, and declared the very prince of drinks after active exercise in hot weather.
He quaffed it eagerly, flung off his shako and kissed her gratefully, and burst all at once into laughing narration of the morning"s work, but she checked him:
"Ned, dear, don"t stop for that yet. I know you"re too full of tact to let Colonel Braxton see it was any fun for you, and he"s waiting at the office. Something tells me it"s about Mr. Waring. Now put yourself in Mr. Waring"s place. Of course he ought never to have made that engagement until he had consulted you, but he never dreamed that there would be a review to-day, and so he invited the Allertons to breakfast with him at Moreau"s and go to the _matinee_."
"Why, that rascal Ananias said it was to breakfast at the general"s,"
interrupted the battery commander.
"Well, perhaps he was invited there too. I believe I did hear something of that. But he had made this arrangement with the Allertons. Now, of course, if review were over at ten he could just about have time to dress and catch the eleven-o"clock car, but that would make it very late, and when Bay Billy broke away from Ananias n.o.body could catch him for over half an hour. Mr. Ferry had taken the section, Mr. Waring wasn"t needed, and---- Why, Ned, when I drove in, fearing to find him injured, and saw him standing there the picture of consternation and despair, and he told me about his engagement, I said myself, "Why don"t you go now?" I told him it was what you surely would say if you were here. Neither of us thought the colonel would object, so long as you approved, and he wrote such a nice note. Why, Ned, he only just had time to change his dress and drive up with Jeffers----"
"With Jeffers? With my--er--our team and wagon? Well, I like----"
"Of course you like it, you old darling. She"s such a dear girl, though just a little bit gushing, you know. Why, I said, certainly the team should go. But, Ned, here"s what I"m afraid of. Mrs. Braxton saw it drive in at nine-thirty, just after Billy ran away, and she asked Jeffers who was going, and he told her Mr. Waring, and she has told the colonel, I"ll wager. Now, what you have got to do is to explain that to him, so that he won"t blame Mr. Waring."
"The d.i.c.kens I have! The most barefaced piece of impudence even Sam Waring was ever guilty of--to me, at least, though I"ve no doubt he"s done worse a dozen times. Why, bless your heart, Nell, how can I explain? You might, but----"
"But would you have me suppose my big soldier couldn"t handle that matter as well as I? No, sir! Go and do it, sir. And, mind you, I"m going to invite them all up here to the gallery to hear the band play and have a cup of tea and a nibble when they come down this evening.
He"s going to drive the Allertons here."
"Worse and more of it! Why, you conspiracy in petticoats, you"ll be the ruin of me! Old Brax is boiling over now. If he dreams that Waring has been taking liberties with him he"ll fetch him up so short----"
"Exactly! You mustn"t let him. You must tell him I sent him up with your team--yours, mind you--to keep his engagement, since it was impossible for him to come back to review ground. Of course he wouldn"t expect him to appear afoot."
"Don"t know about that, Nell. I reckon that"s the way he"ll order out the whole gang of us next time. He"s had his fill of mounted work to-day."
"Well, if he should, you be sure to acquiesce gracefully now. Whatsoever you do, don"t let him put Mr. Waring in arrest while Gwen Allerton is here. It would spoil--everything."
"Oh, match-making, is it? Then I"ll try." And so, vexed, but laughing, half indignant, yet wholly subordinate to the whim of his beloved better half, the captain hastened over, and found Colonel Braxton sitting with gloomy brow at his littered desk, his annoyance of the morning evidently forgotten in matters more serious.
"Oh--er--Cram, come in, come in, man," said he, distractedly. "Here"s a matter I want to see you about. It"s--well, just take that letter and read. Sit down, sit down. Read, and tell me what we ought to do about it."
And as Cram"s blue eyes wandered over the written page they began to dilate. He read from start to finish, and then dropped his head into his hand, his elbow on his knee, his face full of perplexity and concern.
"What do you think of it? Is there any truth----" and the colonel hesitated.
"As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other,--the challenge,--I don"t believe it."
"Well, Cram, this is the second or third letter that has come to me in the same hand. Now, you must see to it that he returns and doesn"t quit the post until this matter is arranged."
"I"ll attend to it, sir," was the answer.
And so that evening, while Waring was slowly driving his friends about the shaded roads under the glistening white pillars of the rows of officers" quarters, chatting joyously with them and describing the objects so strange to their eyes, Mrs. Cram"s "little foot-page" came to beg that they should alight a few minutes and take a cup of tea. They could not. The Allertons were engaged, and it was necessary to drive back at once to town, but they stopped for a moment to chat with their pretty hostess under the gallery, and then a moment later, as they rolled out of the resounding sally-port, an orderly ran up, saluted, and slipped a note in Waring"s hand.
"It is immediate, sir," was his explanation.
"Ah! Miss Allerton, will you pardon me one moment?" said Waring, as he shifted whip and reins into the left hand and turned coolly up the levee road. Then with the right he forced open and held up the missive.
It only said, "Whatsoever you do, be here before taps to-night. Come direct to me, and I will explain.
"Your friend, "CRAM."
"All right," said Waring, aloud. "My compliments to the captain, and say I"ll be with him."
But even with this injunction he failed to appear. Midnight came without a word from Waring, and the morning dawned and found him absent still.
CHAPTER III.
It was one of Sam Waring"s oddities that, like the hero of "Happy Thoughts," other people"s belongings seemed to suit him so much better than his own. The most immaculately dressed man in the regiment, he was never satisfied with the result of the efforts of the New York artists whom he favored with his custom and his criticism. He would wear three or four times a new coat just received from that metropolis, and spend not a little time, when not on duty or in uniform, in studying critically its cut and fit in the various mirrors that hung about his bachelor den, gayly humming some operatic air as he conducted the survey, and generally winding up with a wholesale denunciation of the cutter and an order to Ananias to go over and get some other fellow"s coat, that he might try the effect of that. These were liberties he took only with his chums and intimates, to be sure, but they were liberties all the same, and it was delicious to hear the laugh with which he would tell how Pierce had to dress in uniform when he went up to the opera Thursday night, or how, after he had worn Ferry"s stylish morning suit to make a round of calls in town and that young gentleman later on went up to see a pretty girl in whom he felt a growing interest, her hateful little sister had come in and commented on his "borrowing Mr.
Waring"s clothes." No man in the battery would ever think of refusing Sam the use of anything he possessed, and there were half a dozen young fellows in the infantry who were just as ready to pay tribute to his whims. Nor was it among the men alone that he found such indulgence.
Mrs. Cram had not known him a fortnight when, with twinkling eyes and a betraying twitch about the corners of his mouth, he appeared one morning to say he had invited some friends down to luncheon at the officers"
mess and the mess had no suitable china, therefore he would thank her to send over hers, also some table-cloths and napkins, and forks and spoons. When the Forty-Sixth Infantry were on their way to Texas and the officers" families were entertained over-night at the barracks and his rooms were to be occupied by the wife, sister, and daughters of Captain Craney, Waring sent the battery team and spring wagon to town with a note to Mrs. Converse, of the staff, telling her the ladies had said so much about the lovely way her spare rooms were furnished that he had decided to draw on her for wash-bowls, pitchers, mosquito-frames, nets and coverlets, blankets, pillows, slips, shams, and anything else she might think of. And Mrs. Converse loaded up the wagon accordingly. This was the more remarkable in her case because she was one of the women with whom he had never yet danced, which was tantamount to saying that in the opinion of this social bashaw Mrs. Converse was not considered a good partner, and, as the lady entertained very different views on that subject and was pa.s.sionately fond of dancing, she had resented not a little the line thus drawn to her detriment. She not only loaned, however, all he asked for, but begged to be informed if there were not something more she could do to help entertain his visitors. Waring sent her some lovely flowers the next week, but failed to take her out even once at the staff german. Mrs. Cram was alternately aghast and delighted at what she perhaps justly called his incomparable impudence.
They were coming out of church together one lovely morning during the winter. There was a crowd in the vestibule. Street dresses were then worn looped, yet there was a sudden sound of rip, rent, and tear, and a portly woman gathered up the trailing skirt of a costly silken gown and whirled with annihilation in her eyes upon the owner of the offending foot.
"That is far too elegant a skirt to be worn unlooped, madame," said Mrs.
Cram"s imperturbable escort, in his most suave and dulcet tones, lifting a glossy silk hat and bowing profoundly. And Mrs. Cram laughed all the way back to barracks at the recollection of the utter discomfiture in the woman"s face.
These are mere specimen bricks from the fabric which Waring had builded in his few months of artillery service. The limits of the story are all too contracted to admit of extended detail. So, without further expansion, it may be said that when he drove up to town on this eventful April day in Cram"s wagon and Larkin"s hat and Ferry"s Hatfield clothes, with Pierce"s precious London umbrella by his side and Merton"s watch in his pocket, he was as stylish and presentable a fellow as ever issued from a battery barrack, and Jeffers, Cram"s English groom, mutely approved the general appearance of his prime favorite among the officers at the post, at most of whom he opened his eyes in c.o.c.kney amaze, and critically noted the skill with which Mr. Waring tooled the spirited bays along the levee road.
Nearly a mile above the barracks, midway between the long embankment to their left and the tall white picket fence surmounted by the olive-green foliage of magnolias and orange-trees on the other hand, they had come upon a series of deep mud-holes in the way, where the seepage-water from the rapidly-rising flood was turning the road-way into a pond. Stuck helplessly in the mud, an old-fashioned cabriolet was halted. Its driver was out and up to his knees thrashing vainly at his straining, staggering horse. The tortuous road-way was blocked, but Waring had been up and down the river-bank too many times both day and night to be daunted by a matter so trivial. He simply cautioned Jeffers to lean well over the inner wheel, guided his team obliquely up the slope of the levee, and drove quietly along its level top until abreast the scene of the wreck. One glance into the interior of the cab caused him suddenly to stop, to pa.s.s the reins back to Jeffers, to spring down the slope until he stood at the edge of the sea of mud. Here he raised his hat and cried,--
"Madame Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky--for me. Let me get you out."
At his call a slender, graceful woman who was gazing in anxiety and dismay from the opposite side of the cab and pleading with the driver not to beat his horse, turned suddenly, and a pair of lovely dark eyes lighted up at sight of his face. Her pallor, too, gave instant place to a warm flush. A pretty child at her side clapped her little hands and screamed with delight,--
"_Maman! maman! C"est M"sieu_" Vayreeng; _c"est_ Sa-am."
"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng! I"m so glad you"ve come! Do speak to that man! It is horrible the way he beat that poor horse.--_Mais non_, Nin Nin!" she cried, reproving the child, now stretching forth her little arms to her friend and striving to rise and leap to him.
"I"d like to know how in h.e.l.l I"m to get this cab out of such a hole as this if I don"t beat him," exclaimed the driver, roughly. Then once more, "Dash blank dash your infernal hide! I"ll learn you to balk with me again!" Then down came more furious lashes on the quivering hide, and the poor tortured brute began to back, thereby placing the frail four-wheeler in imminent danger of being upset.
"Steady there! Hold your hand, sir! Don"t strike that horse again. Just stand at his head a moment and keep quiet till I get these ladies out,"
called Waring, in tone quiet yet commanding.
"I"ll get "em out myself in my own way, if they"ll only stop their infernal yellin"," was the coa.r.s.e reply.