"You mean to a commission?"

"Yes. You see, I did not understand then the impossibility, the great
gulf fixed. I dreamed that good fortune might give me something to do
worth while."

"And fate has been unkind?"

"In a way, yes," and he laughed rather grimly. "I had my
chance--twice; honorable mention, and all that, but that ended it.
There is no bridge across the chasm. An enlisted man is not held fit
for any higher position; if that was not sufficient to bar me, the fact
that I had fought for the South would."

"You were in the Confederate army? You must have been very young."

"Oh, no; little more than a boy, of course, but so were the majority of
my comrades. I was in my senior college year when the war broke out.
But, Miss McDonald, this will never do! See how light it is growing.
There, they have begun firing already. We must get back out of sight
behind the sand-dunes."




CHAPTER X

THE RIPENING OF ACQUAINTANCE

They needed to retire but a few steps to be entirely concealed, yet so