Waring was seated one lovely evening in a low reclining chair on Mrs. Cram's broad gallery, sipping contentedly at the cup of fragrant tea she had handed him. The band was playing, and a number of children were chasing about in noisy glee. The men were at supper, the officers, as a rule, at mess. For several minutes the semi-restored invalid had not spoken a word. In one of his customary day-dreams he had been calmly gazing at the shapely white hand of his hostess, "all queenly with its weight of rings." "Will you permit me to examine those rings a moment?" he said. "Why, certainly. No, you sit still, Mr. Waring," she replied, promptly rising, and, pulling them off her fingers, dropped them into his open palm. With the same dreamy expression on his clear-cut, pallid face, he turned them over and over, held them up to the light, finally selected one exquisite gem, and then, half rising, held forth the others. As she took them and still stood beside his chair as though patiently waiting, he glanced up. "Oh, beg pardon. You want this, I suppose?" and, handing her the dainty teacup, he calmly slipped the ring into his waistcoat-pocket and languidly murmured, "Thanks." "Well, I like that." "Yes? So do I, rather better than the others." "May I ask what you purpose doing with my ring?" "I was just thinking. I've ordered a new Amidon for Larkin, a new ninety-dollar suit for Ferry, and I shall be decidedly poor this month, even if we recover Merton's watch." "Oh, well, if it's only to pawn one, why not take a diamond?" "But it isn't." "What then, pray?" "Well, again I was just thinking--whether I could find another to match this up in town, or send this one--to her." "Mr. _Waring_! _Really?_" And now Mrs. Cram's bright eyes are dancing with eagerness and delight. For all answer, though his own eyes begin to moisten and swim, he draws from an inner pocket a dainty letter, post-marked from a far, far city to the northeast. "You _dear_ fellow! How can I tell you how glad I am! I haven't dared to ask you of her since we met at Washington, but--oh, my heart has been just full of her since--since this trouble came." "God bless the trouble! it was that that won her to me at last. I have loved her ever since I first saw her--long years ago." "Oh! _oh!_ OH! if Ned were only here! I'm wild to tell him. I may, mayn't I?" "Yes, the moment he comes." But Ned brought a crowd with him when he got back from town a little later. Reynolds was there, and Philippe Lascelles, and Mr. Pepper, and they had a tale to tell that must needs be condensed.