The situation puzzled him.
"Sergeant Hamlin, how are you here?
On leave ?" "Yes, sir." "Of course this is rather unusual, Captain Barrett," said the lady hastily, tapping the astonished officer lightly with her fan, "but I was once quite well acquainted with Sergeant Hamlin when he was a major of the Fourth Texas Infantry during the late war.

He and my husband were intimates.

Naturally I was delighted to meet with him again." The Captain stared at the man's rigid figure.
"Good Lord, I never knew that, Hamlin," he exclaimed.

"Glad to know it, my man.

You see," he explained lamely, "we get all kinds of fellows in the ranks, and are not interested in their past history.