It was a clear winter's evening, sharply cold, about a week after the
fire, when, as Mrs. Rayner came down the stairway equipped for a walk,
and was passing the parlor door without stopping, Miss Travers caught
sight of and called to her,--
"Are you going walking, Kate? _Do_ wait a moment, and I'll go with you."
Any one in the hall could have shared the author's privilege and seen
the expression of annoyance and confusion that appeared on Mrs. Rayner's
face:
"I thought you _were_ out. Did not Mr. Graham take you walking?"
"He did; but we wandered into Mrs. Waldron's, and she and the major
begged us to stay, and we had some music, and then the first call
sounded for retreat, and Mr. Graham had to go, so he brought me home.
I've had no walk, and need exercise."
"But I don't like you to be out after sunset. That cough of yours--"
"Disappeared the day after I got here, Kate, and there hasn't been a
vestige of it since. This high, dry climate put an end to it. No, I'll
be ready in one minute more. Do wait."
Mrs. Rayner's hand was turning the knob while her sister was hurrying to
the front door and drawing on her heavy jacket as she did so. The former
faced her impatiently:
"I don't think you are at all courteous to your visitors. You know just
as well as I do that Mr. Foster or Mr. Royce or some other of those
young officers are sure to be in just at this hour. You really are very
thoughtless, Nellie."
Miss Travers stopped short in her preparations.
"Kate Rayner," she began, impressively, "it was only night before last
that you rebuked me for sitting here with Mr. Blake at this very hour,
and asked me how I supposed Mr. Van Antwerp would like it. Now you--"
"Fudge! I cannot stay and listen to such talk. If you _must_ go, wait a
few minutes until I get back. I--I want to make a short call. Then I'll
take you."
"So do I want to make a short call,--over at the doctor's; and you are
going right to the hospital, are you not?"
"How do you know I am?" asked Mrs. Rayner, reddening.
"You _do_ go there every evening, it seems to me."
"I don't. Who told you I did?"
"Several people mentioned your kindness and attention to the Clancys,
Kate. I have heard it from many sources."
"I wish people would mind their own affairs," wailed Mrs. Rayner,
peevishly.
"So do I, Kate; but they never have, and never will, especially with an
engaged girl. I have more to complain of than you, but it doesn't make
me forlorn, whereas you look fearfully worried about nothing."
"Who says I'm worried?" asked Mrs. Rayner, with sudden vehemence.
"You look worried, Kate, and haven't been at all like yourself for
several days. Now, _why_ shouldn't I go to the hospital with you? Why do
you try to hide your going from me? Don't you know that I must have
heard the strange stories that are flitting about the garrison? Haven't
I asked you to set me right if I have been told a wrong one? Kate, you
are fretting yourself to death about something, and the captain looks
worried and ill. I cannot but think it has some connection with the case
of Mr. Hayne. Why should the Clancys--"
"You have no right to think any such thing," answered her sister,
angrily. "We have suffered too much at his hands or on his account
already, and I never want to hear such words from your lips. It would
outrage Captain Rayner to hear that my sister, to whom he has given a
home and a welcome, was linking herself with those who side with
that--that thief."
"Kate! Oh, how _can_ you use such words? How dare you speak so of an
officer? You would not tell me what he was accused of; but I tell you
that if it be theft I don't believe it,--and no one else--"
There was a sudden footfall on the porch without, and a quick, sharp,
imperative knock at the door. Mrs. Rayner fled back along the hall
towards the dining-room. Miss Travers, hesitating but a second, opened
the door.
It was the soldier telegraph-operator, with a despatch-envelope in his
hand:
"It is for Mrs. Rayner, miss, and an answer is expected. Shall I wait?"
Mrs. Rayner came hastily forward from her place of refuge within the
dining-room, took the envelope without a word, and passed into the
parlor, where, standing beneath the lamp, she tore it open, glanced
anxiously at its contents, then threw it with an exclamation of peevish
indignation upon the table:
"You'll have to answer for yourself, Nellie. I cannot straighten your
affairs and mine too." And with that she was going; but Miss Travers
called her back.
The message simply read, "No letter in four days. Is anything wrong?
Answer paid," and was addressed to Mrs. Rayner and signed S.V.A.
"I think you have been extremely neglectful," said Mrs. Rayner, who had
turned and now stood watching the rising color and impatiently tapping
foot of her younger sister. Miss Travers bit her lips and compressed
them hard. There was an evident struggle in her mind between a desire to
make an impulsive and sweeping reply and an effort to control herself.
"Will you answer a quiet question or two?" she finally asked.
"You know perfectly well I will," was the sisterly rejoinder.
"How long does it take a letter to go from here to New York?"
"Five or six days, I suppose."
Miss Travers stepped to the door, briefly told the soldier there was no
answer, thanked him for waiting, and returned.
"You are not going to reply?" asked Mrs. Rayner, in amaze.
"_I_ am not; and I inferred _you_ did not intend to. Now another
question. How many days have we been here?"
"Eight or nine,--nine, it is."
"You saw me post a letter to Mr. Van Antwerp as we left the Missouri,
did you not?"
"Yes. At least I suppose so."
"I wrote again as soon as we got settled here, three days after that,
did I not?"
"You said you did," replied Mrs. Rayner, ungraciously.
"And you, Kate, when you are yourself have been prompt to declare that I
say what I mean. Very probably it may have been four days from the time
that letter from the transfer reached Wall Street to the time the next
one could get to him from here, even had I written the night we arrived.
Possibly you forget that you forbade my doing so, and sent me to bed
early. Mr. Van Antwerp has simply failed to remember that I had gone
several hundred miles farther west; and even had I written on the train
twice a day, the letters would not have reached him uninterruptedly. By
this time he is beginning to get them fast enough. And as for you, Kate,
you are quite as unjust as he. It augurs badly for my future peace;
and--I am learning two lessons here, Kate."
"What two, pray?"
"That he can be foolishly unreliable in estimating a woman."
"And the other?"
"That you may be persistently unreliable in your judgment of a man."
Verily, for a young woman with a sweet, girlish face, whom we saw but a
week agone twitching a kitten's ears and saying little or nothing, Miss
Travers was displaying unexpected fighting qualities. For a moment, Mrs.
Rayner glared at her in tremulous indignation and dismay.
"You--you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" was her eventual outbreak.
But to this there was no reply. Miss Travers moved quietly to the
door-way, turned and looked her angry sister in the eye, and said,--
"I shall give up the walk, and will go to my room. Excuse me to any
visitors this evening."
"You are not going to write to him now, when you are angry, I hope?"
"I shall not write to him until to-morrow, but when I do I shall tell
him this, Kate: that if he desire my confidence he will address his
complaints and inquiries to me. If I am old enough to be engaged to him,
in your opinion, I am equally old enough to attend to such details as
these, in my own."
Mrs. Rayner stood one moment as though astounded; then she flew to the
door and relieved her surcharged bosom as follows, "Well, I pity the man
you marry, whether you are lucky enough to keep this one or not!" and
flounced indignantly out of the house.
When Captain Rayner came in, half an hour afterwards, the parlor was
deserted. He was looking worn and dispirited. Finding no one on the
ground-floor, he went to the foot of the stairs, and called,--
"Kate."