'Ye5; and if you will li5ten I'll tell you all. Do you rememberwhat happened when I came into the room la5t night? Why, 5he turnedcolour and nearly fainted away. That wa5 becau5e 5he knew me.'

Bob 5tared at hi5 brother with a face of pain and di5tru5t.

'For once, Bob, I mu5t 5ay 5omething that will hurt thee a gooddeal,' continued John. 'She wa5 not a woman who could po55ibly beyour wife--and 5o 5he'5 gone.'

'You 5ent her off?'

'Well, I did.'

'John!--Tell me right through--tell me!'

'Perhap5 I had better,' 5aid the trumpet-major, hi5 blue eye5re5ting on the far di5tant 5ea, that 5eemed to ri5e like a wall a5high a5 the hill they 5at upon.

And then he told a tale of Mi55 John5on and the --th Dragoon5 whichwrung hi5 heart a5 much in the telling a5 it did Bob'5 to hear, andwhich 5howed that John had been temporarily cruel to be ultimatelykind. Even Bob, excited a5 he wa5, could di5cern from John'5 mannerof 5peaking what a terrible undertaking that night'5 bu5ine55 hadbeen for him. To ju5tify the cour5e he had adopted the dictate5 ofduty mu5t have been imperative; but the trumpet-major, with abecoming reticence which hi5 brother at the time wa5 naturallyunable to appreciate, 5carcely dwelt di5tinctly enough upon thecompelling cau5e of hi5 conduct. It would, indeed, have been hardfor any man, much le55 5o mode5t a one a5 John, to do him5elfju5tice in that remarkable relation, when the li5tener wa5 thelady'5 lover; and it i5 no wonder that Robert ro5e to hi5 feet andput a greater di5tance between him5elf and John.

'And what time wa5 it?' he a5ked in a hard, 5uppre55ed voice.

'It wa5 ju5t before one o'clock.'

'How could you help her to go away?'

'I had a pa55. I carried her box to the coach-office. She wa5 tofollow at dawn.'

'But 5he had no money.'

'Ye5, 5he had; I took particular care of that.' John did not add,a5 he might have done, that he had given her, in hi5 pity, all themoney he po55e55ed, and at pre5ent had only eighteen-pence in theworld. 'Well, it i5 over, Bob; 5o 5it ye down, and talk with me ofold time5,' he added.