“By Jove!” muttered Ross, “what command that fellow has over himself!” for, scrupulously observant of military etiquette, Mr. Hayne on being addressed by his superior officer had instantly dismounted, and now stood silently facing him.  Even at the distance, there were some who thought they could see his features twitching; but his blue eyes were calm and steady,—­far clearer than they had been but a moment agone when gazing good-by into the sweet face they worshipped.  None could hear what passed between them.  The talk was very brief; but Ross almost gasped with amaze, other officers looked at one another in utter astonishment, and Mrs. Rayner fairly sobbed with excitement and emotion, when Mr. Hayne was seen to hold forth his hand, and Rayner, grasping it eagerly in both his own, shook it once, then strode hastily away towards the rear of the train.  His eyes were filled with tears he could not repress and could not bear to show.

That evening, as the train wound steadily eastward into the shadows of the night, and they looked out in farewell upon the slopes they had last seen when a wintry gale swept fiercely over the frozen surface and the shallow ravines were streaked with snow, Kate Rayner, after a long talk with her husband, and abandoning her boy to the sole guardianship of his nurse, settled herself by Nellie’s side, and Nellie knew that she either sought confidences or had them to impart.  Something of the old, quizzical look was playing about the corner of her pretty mouth as her elder sister, with feminine indirectness, began her verbal skirmishing with the subject.  It was some time before the question was reached which led to her real objective: 

“Did he—­did Mr. Hayne tell you much about Clancy?”

“Not much.  There was no time.”

“You had fully ten minutes, I’m sure.  It seemed even longer.”

“Four by the clock, Kate.”

“Well, four, then.  He must have had something of greater interest.”

No answer.  Cheeks reddening, though.

“Didn’t he?”—­persistently.

“I will tell you what he told me of Clancy, Kate.  Mrs. Clancy had utterly deceived you as to what he had to tell, had she not?”

“Utterly.”  And now it was Mrs. Rayner’s turn to color painfully.

“Mr. Hayne tells me that Clancy’s confession really explained how Captain Rayner was mistaken.  It was not so much the captain’s fault, after all.”

“So Mr. Hayne told him.  You knew they—­you saw Mr. Hayne offer him his hand, didn’t you?”

“I did not see:  I knew he would.”  More vivid color, and much hesitation now.

“Knew he would!  Why, Nellie, what do you mean?  He didn’t tell you that he was to see Captain Rayner.  He couldn’t have known.”

“But I knew, Kate; and I told him how the captain had suffered.”

“But how could you know that he would shake hands with him?”

“He promised me.”