Jerrold herself.  She expected a proper amount of womanly horror, incredulity, and indignation; but she was totally unprepared for the outburst that followed.  Nina was transformed into a tragedy queen on the instant, and poor, simple-hearted, foolish Fanny Sutton was almost scared out of her small wits by the fire of denunciation and fury with which her story was greeted.  She came home with white, frightened face and hunted up Cub and told him that she had been telling Nina some of the queer things the ladies had been saying about Mr. Jerrold, and Nina almost tore her to pieces, and could he go right out to the fort to see Mr. Jerrold?  Nina wanted to send a note at once; and if he couldn’t go she had made her promise that she would get somebody to go instantly and to come back and let her know before four o’clock.  Cub was always glad of an excuse to go out to the fort, but a coldness had sprung up between him and Jerrold.  He had heard the ugly rumors in that mysterious way in which all such things are heard, and, while his shallow pate could not quite conceive of such a monstrous scandal and he did not believe half he heard, he sagely felt that in the presence of so much smoke there was surely some fire, and avoided the man from whom he had been inseparable.  Of course he had not spoken to him on the subject, and, singularly enough, this was the case with all the officers at the post except Armitage and the commander.  It was understood that the matter was in Chester’s hands, to do with as was deemed best.  It was believed that his resignation had been tendered; and all these forty-eight hours since the story might be said to be fairly before the public, Jerrold had been left much to himself, and was presumably in the depths of dismay.

One or two men, urged by their wives, who thought it was really time something were done to let him understand he ought not to lead the german, had gone to see him and been refused admission.  Asked from within what they wanted, the reply was somewhat difficult to frame, and in both cases resolved itself into “Oh, about the german;” to which Jerrold’s voice was heard to say, “The german’s all right.  I’ll lead if I’m well enough and am not bothered to death meantime; but I’ve got some private matters to attend to, and am not seeing anybody to-day.”  And with this answer they were fain to be content.  It had been settled, however, that the officers were to tell Captain Chester at ten o’clock that in their opinion Mr. Jerrold ought not to be permitted to attend so long as this mysterious charge hung over him; and Mr. Rollins had been notified that he must be ready to lead.