was no soldier in the army who would have served more devotedly than
myself. And now I was found wanting and thrown out to herd with
civilians, as unfit to hold the President's commission. After my first
outbreak of impotent rage--for I blamed everyone but myself--remorse
set in, and I thought of grandfather and of how much he had done for
our country, and how we had talked so confidently together of the days
when I would follow in his footsteps, as his grandchild, and as the
son of "Fighting Macklin."

All my life I had talked and thought of nothing else, and now, just as
I was within a year of it, I was shown the door which I never can
enter again.

That it might be easier for us when I arrived, I telegraphed Beatrice
what had happened, and when I reached the house the same afternoon she
was waiting for me at the door, as though I was coming home for a
holiday and it was all as it might have been. But neither of us was
deceived, and without a word we walked out of the garden and up the
hill to the woods where we had last been together six months before,
Since then all had changed. Summer had come, the trees were heavy with
leaves, and a warm haze hung over the river and the Palisades beyond
We seated ourselves on a fallen tree at the top of the hill and sat in
silence, looking down into the warm, beautiful valley. It was Beatrice
who was the first to speak.

"I have been thinking of what you can do," she began, gently, "and it
seems to me, Royal, that what you need now is a good rest. It has been
a hard winter for you. You have had to meet the two greatest trials
that I hope will ever come to you. You took the first one well, as you
should, and you will take this lesser one well also; I know you will.