"
I thought Mr. Thorold seemed a little bit grave and silent for
a moment; then he rose up, with that benign look of his eyes
glowing all over me, and told me there was the drum for
parade. "Only the first drum," he added; so I need not be in a
hurry. Would I go home before parade?
I thought I would. If Preston was pacing up and down the side
of the camp ground, I thought I did not want to see him nor to
have him see me; as he was there for what I called disgrace.
Moreover I had a secret presentiment of a breezy discussion
with him the next time there was a chance.
And I was not disappointed. The next day, in the afternoon he
came to see us. Mrs. Sandford and I were sitting on the
piazza, where the heat of an excessively sultry day was now
relieved a little by a slender breeze coming out of the north-
west. It was very hot still. Preston sat down and made
conversation in an abstracted way for a little while.
"We did not see you at the hop the other night, Mr. Gary,"
Mrs. Sandford remarked.
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