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The Price of Silence.
It was the misfortune of Mr.Cummings's first literary offering to annoy one of the editor's friends.

The Journal was brought to the corporal at noon, while he was considering whether he should rise from his couch or sleep another hour.

Reclining among his pillows, he glanced through Cummings's description with the subdued giggle he always had for the good William's style but as his eye fell upon one paragraph he started sat upright, and proceeded to read the passage several times with anxious attention.
"Only two or three sources of regret occurred to mar the delight (in which young and old participated) of that festal and dazzling scene.

One was the absence of Miss Fanchon Bareaud, one the donors; another, that of Corporal Gray; a third was the excessive modesty of Major Vanrevel, although present at the time, refused to receive the ladies' sumptuous offering and insisted that Captain Marsh was the proper person to do the honors, to which the latter reluctantly, though gracefully consented.
Also, we were sorry that the Major appeared in citizen's dress, as all were anxious to witness him in his uniform.