"There was this note for you in mine, and a draft on New York, because he thought you might be in arrears."
"No, I'm not. Aunty can have the draft, though; she may need it before I come back," said Ray, brokenly, gazing into the fire. "Do you suppose Beltran wrote mine or yours first?"
"Yours."
"Then you've the last thing he ever set his hand to, perhaps!"
"Don't talk so, child!" said Vivia, with an angry shiver. "Come back! Where are you going?"
"I enlisted, yesterday, in the Kansas Cavalry."
"Great heavens, Ray! was there not another regiment in all the world than one to be sent down to New Mexico to meet Beltran and the Texan Rangers?" cried Vivia, wringing her hands.
Ray was on his feet again, a swarm of expletives buzzing inarticulately at his lips.
"I never thought of that," said he, whiter than ashes.
"What made you? oh, what made you?"