and no repentance without humility.  Mr. Hayne’s whole attitude was that of stubborn pride and resentment; his atonement was that enforced by the unanimous verdict of his comrades; and even if it were so that he had more than made amends for his crime, the rules that held good for ordinary sinners were not applicable to an officer of the army. He must be a man above suspicion, incapable of wrong or fraud, and once stained he was forever ineligible as a gentleman.  It was a subject on which she waxed declamatory rather too often, and the youngsters of her own regiment wearied of it.  As Mr. Foster once expressed it in speaking of this very case, “Mrs. Rayner can talk more charity and show less than any woman I know.”  So long as her talk was aimed against any lurking tendency of their own to look upon Hayne as a possible martyr, it fell at times on unappreciative ears, and she was quick to see it and to choose her hearers; but here was a new phase,—­one that might rouse the latent esprit de corps of the Riflers,—­and she was bent on striking while the iron was hot.  If anything would provoke unanimity of action and sentiment in the regiment, this public recognition by the cavalry, in their very presence, of the man they cut as a criminal, was the thing of all others to do it; and she meant to head the revolt.

Possibly Gregg and his modest helpmeet discovered that there was something she desired to “spring” upon the meeting.  The others present were all of the infantry; and when Captain Rayner simply glanced in, spoke hurried good-evenings, and went as hurriedly out again, Gregg was sure of it, and marched his wife away.  Then came Mrs. Rayner’s opportunity: 

“If it were not Captain Rayner’s house, I could not have been even civil to Captain Gregg.  You heard what he said at the club this morning, I suppose?”

In one form or another, indeed, almost everybody had heard.  The officers present maintained an embarrassed silence.  Miss Travers looked reproachfully at her flushed sister, but to no purpose.  At last one of the ladies remarked,—­

“Well, of course I heard of it, but—­I’ve heard so many different versions.  It seems to have grown somewhat since morning.”

“It sounds just like him, however,” said Mrs. Rayner, “and I made inquiry before speaking of it.  He said he meant to invite Mr. Hayne to his house to-morrow evening, and if the infantry didn’t like it they could stay away.”

“Well, now, Mrs. Rayner,” protested Mr. Foster, “of course none of us heard what he said exactly, but it is my experience that no conversation was ever repeated without being exaggerated, and I’ve known old Gregg for ever so long, and never heard him say a sharp thing yet.  Why, he’s the mildest-mannered fellow in the whole ——­th Cavalry.  He would never get into such a snarl as that would bring about him in five minutes.”

“Well, he said he would do just as the colonel did, anyway,—­we have that straight from cavalry authority,—­and we all know what the colonel has done.  He has chosen to honor Mr. Hayne in the presence of the officers who denounce him, and practically defies the opinion of the Riflers.”