But how very long the coming night would be! He had known long nights while on picket, when his battery was on duty in the Indian country and he had looked forward to them with dread, but now there would be twelve hours, at the very least, before he could again gaze upon the face of the woman who was all the world to him. What could he do to pass the time? Study?--bosh! Read? No; he must sleep, for he owed it to Kate to appear his very best the next day. Still, it was only ten o'clock; he never retired before eleven. He would read a little while; read some poetry--something he had done but little in late years. He had read but a few minutes when there was a knock at the door and a servant handed him a letter addressed in writing which he did not recognize. He opened it and read: We return to New York by the morning train. You had scarcely left us when two ladies whom I've known only two or three days came to tell me how glad they were of the news. When I learned what they meant I expressed surprise, but they said that every one in the hotel knew of it--some one had overheard Trixy talking of it to two or three officers. That child! Sorrowfully, KATE. CHAPTER XVIII THE WOOING O' IT. There was a lot of misery--four rooms full of it--when Kate Trewman announced to the Highwood party and her brother that she could never, never, never again face the gossips and the other people at the hotel after the story of her engagement had got about with the infinity of detail which Trixy had imparted and the additions which are inevitable when a story is passed from lip to lip. Trif had promised to go sailing the very next day with some new friends, Fenie had promised several dances for the "Ladies' Night" at the fort, which would be the next night but one, and Harry and Fenie had agreed to make a little trip which Harry thought would be peculiarly delightful, and Fenie agreed with him, although she did not know why. But Kate was obdurate. She admitted to Trif that she loved Jermyn dearly, strange though it might seem, but for that very reason her self-respect was stronger than ever, and although she could endure anything for her own sake she was not willing that anything should occur, or that anything which had occurred, should make the dear fellow laughed at and talked about. People were so mean! Who knew but some one would say that she had tried to catch him, and succeeded? The idea!