"Like the wearer," said Marian. "I should have been sorry indeed if you had changed it."
"Well, I knew that you would be anxious to have even a negative assurance of Strahan's safety."
"And equally so to be positively assured of your own."
"I hoped that that would be true to some extent. My dear old mother, in New Hampshire, to whom I have telegraphed, is eager to see me, and so I shall go on in the morning."
"You must be our guest, then, to-night," said Mr. Vosburgh, decisively. "We will take no refusal, and I shall send at once to the hotel for your luggage."
"It is small indeed," laughed Blauvelt, flushing with pleasure, "for I came away in very light marching order."
Marian then explained that Merwyn, who, after a brief, polite greeting from Blauvelt, had been almost forgotten, was about to start in search of Strahan.
"I would not lay a straw in his way, and possibly he may obtain some clue that escaped me," said the young officer.
"Perhaps, if you feel strong enough to tell us something of that
part of the battle in which you were engaged, and of your search,
Mr. Merwyn may receive hints which will be of service to him," Mr.
Vosburgh suggested.
"I shall be very glad to do so, and feel entirely equal to the effort. Indeed, I have been resting and sleeping in the cars nearly all day, and am so much better that I scarcely feel it right to be absent from the regiment."