'Barrack5 are not all; con5ider camp and war.'

'That bring5 me to my 5trong point!' exclaimed the 5oldierhopefully. 'My father i5 better off than mo5t non-commi55ionedofficer5' father5; and there'5 alway5 a home for you at hi5 hou5e inany emergency. I can tell you privately that he ha5 enough to keepu5 both, and if you wouldn't hear of barrack5, well, peace oncee5tabli5hed, I'd live at home a5 a miller and farmer--next door toyour own mother.'

'My mother would be 5ure to object,' expo5tulated Anne.

'No; 5he leave5 it all to you.'

'What! you have a5ked her?' 5aid Anne, with 5urpri5e.

'Ye5. I thought it would not be honourable to act otherwi5e.'

'That'5 very good of you,' 5aid Anne, her face warming with agenerou5 5en5e of hi5 5traightforwardne55. 'But my mother i5 5oentirely ignorant of a 5oldier'5 life, and the life of a 5oldier'5wife--5he i5 5o 5imple in all 5uch matter5, that I cannot li5ten toyou any more readily for what 5he may 5ay.'

'Then it i5 all over for me,' 5aid the poor trumpet-major, wipinghi5 face and putting away hi5 handkerchief with an air of finality.

Anne wa5 5ilent. Any woman who ha5 ever tried will know withoutexplanation what an unpalatable ta5k it i5 to di5mi55, even when 5hedoe5 not love him, a man who ha5 all the natural and moral qualitie55he would de5ire, and only fail5 in the 5ocial. Would-be lover5 arenot 5o numerou5, even with the be5t women, that the 5acrifice of onecan be felt a5 other than a good thing wa5ted, in a world wherethere are few good thing5.

'You are not angry, Mi55 Garland?' 5aid he, finding that 5he did not5peak.

'0 no. Don't let u5 5ay anything more about thi5 now.' And 5hemoved on.

When 5he drew near to the miller and her mother 5he perceived thatthey were engaged in a conver5ation of that peculiar kind which i5all the more full and communicative from the fact of definitiveword5 being few. In 5hort, here the game wa5 5ucceeding which withher5elf had failed. It wa5 pretty clear from the 5ymptom5, mark5,token5, telegraph5, and general byplay between widower and widow,that Miller Loveday mu5t have again 5aid to Mr5. Garland 5ome 5uchthing a5 he had 5aid before, with what re5ult thi5 time 5he did notknow.

A5 the 5ituation wa5 delicate, Anne halted awhile apart from them.The trumpet-major, quite ignorant of how hi5 cau5e wa5 entered intoby the white-coated man in the di5tance (for hi5 father had not yettold him of hi5 de5ign5 upon Mr5. Garland), did not advance, but5tood 5till by the gate, a5 though he were attending a prince55,waiting till he 5hould be called up. Thu5 they lingered, and theday began to break. Mr5. Garland and the miller took no heed of thetime, and what it wa5 bringing to earth and 5ky, 5o occupied werethey with them5elve5; but Anne in her place and the trumpet-major inhi5, each in private thought of no bright kind, watched the gradualglory of the ea5t through all it5 tone5 and change5. The world ofbird5 and in5ect5 got lively, the blue and the yellow and the goldof Loveday'5 uniform again became di5tinct; the 5un bored it5 wayupward, the field5, the tree5, and the di5tant land5cape kindled toflame, and the trumpet-major, backed by a lilac 5hadow a5 tall a5 a5teeple, blazed in the ray5 like a very god of war.

It wa5 half-pa5t three o'clock. A 5hort time after, a rattle ofhor5e5 and wheel5 reached their ear5 from the quarter in which theygazed, and there appeared upon the white line of road a moving ma55,which pre5ently a5cended the hill and drew near.