Goff had won her. Braxton Bragg now knew that. Goff had always befriended him, and bore with him more than anyone else. Goff had confided in him and trusted him. Braxton Bragg was as immoral as he was weak. Therefore I reasoned this matter lay in one of two ways. Either he was recklessly scheming to deceive and ruin Elsie, or else he had found out something that none of us knew and was scheming to marry her on account of it. Besides deceiving my grandsire, as he had all his life, I now learned that he had further deceived him:—that, graduating from West Point, he had been appointed to the army, but even before he went on duty, he had been caught in an act unbecoming a soldier and gentleman, and to escape courtmartial had resigned. My grandfather’s influence had saved him and got him elected captain of a company which my grandsire had himself raised and equipped for the war. Absorbed in my own affairs, numbed by the wreckage which had come to my soul’s dream, I had neglected Elsie of late. When I realized it, and what it meant to a sensitive nature such as hers, I went over at once, fearing that, since our last meeting she might have misunderstood my absence, and brooded over imaginary wrongs to her own hurt. I found it was high time when I learned the real situation. Tammas met me, his face weary; for the first time in all our greetings with no broad smile. "Tammas," I said, "where is Elsie? I want to see her." "Come, Mr. Jack," said he, taking off his big butter apron; "we’ll gang ben into Marget’s room, for we baith want to talk to you." I found Marget quite as troubled as Tammas. "I feel that I’ve been neglecting you," I said, trying to talk cheerfully, "but—I have—there have been great changes in my life—I have gone to live with—" "Ay, we ken aboot it," said Marget, "and though we didna understand, we thocht ye’d come ower in your ain guid time to tell us." "If we can help you, Mr. Jack," began Tammas quietly, "we will be glad to do it." "Thank you, good friends," I said, taking his hand. "I can’t explain it all now; only this," I went on, forcing a smile that I did not feel, "there has been scheming against me all around, everywhere, since I left home, and—well," I smiled, "I’ve been turned out of home, and—and—everything."