At length the company left the table.

Mrs. Neville and Mrs. Rothsay went to their rooms to put on hats and cloaks.  As soon as they were ready they came down to bid good by to Mrs. ——­ and some other ladies who had come to the colonel’s quarters to see them off.

When these adieus were all said, the colonel gave Mrs. Rothsay his arm to lead her to the carriage, which stood in line with the army wagons on the road outside the walls.

Captain and Mrs. Neville had gone on before.

“There, the steamer has landed, and here are some people coming up from it,” said the colonel, pausing at the gate with Corona on his arm, as a heavy carriage, drawn by a pair of powerful draught horses, came up from the steamboat landing and drew up at the gate.

A tall man, in a long overcoat and a fur cap, jumped down and approached Corona.

“Uncle Clarence!  Oh, heaven of heavens!  Uncle Clarence!” she exclaimed, pale and faint with excess of surprise and joy.

“Yes, my dear; I am going with you.  See, I have my own carriage and horses, brought all the way by steamer from St. Louis.  Our own servants, brought all the way from North End.  Now introduce me to your friend here, and later I will tell you all about it,” said the new comer, with a smile, as he kissed his niece.

“Oh, Colonel ——­, this is my dear Uncle Clarence—­Mr. Clarence Rockharrt, I mean,” said Corona, in a rapture of confusion.

“How do you do, sir?  I am very glad to see you.  Really going over the plains with this train?” inquired the colonel, as the two gentlemen shook hands.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE NEW COMERS.

“Yes, colonel,” briskly replied Clarence, “I am really going out to the frontier!  I have not enlisted in the army, nor have I received any appointment as post trader or Indian agent from the government, nor missionary or schoolmaster from any Christian association.  But, all the same, I am en route for the wilderness on my own responsibility, by my own conveyance, at my own expense, and with this outgoing trail—­if there be no objection,” added Clarence, with a sudden obscure doubt arising in his mind that there might exist some military regulation against the attachment of any outsider to the trail of army wagons going over the plains from fort to fort.

“‘Objections!’ What objections could there possibly be, my dear sir?  I fancy there could be nothing worse than a warm welcome for you,” replied the colonel.

At that moment Captain Neville, who had put his wife in their carryall, came up to see what had delayed his guest.

“My dear Mrs. Rothsay, we are ready to start,” he said.  Then seeing Mr. Clarence, whom he had met in Washington and liked very much, he seized his hand and exclaimed: 

“Why, Rockharrt, my dear fellow!  You here!  This is a surprise, indeed!  I am very glad to see you!  How are you?  When did you arrive?” and he shook the hand of the new comer as if he would have shaken it off.