He did not know,
however, that Hooker, without recognizing his name, had received the
message as a personal tribute, and had left his sarcastic companions
triumphantly, with the air of going to a confidential interview, to
which his well-known military criticism had entitled him. It was with
a bearing of gloomy importance and his characteristic, sullen, sidelong
glance that he entered the apartment and did not look up until Brant had
signaled the orderly to withdraw, and closed the door behind him. And
then he recognized his old boyish companion--the preferred favorite of
fortune!
For a moment he gasped with astonishment. For a moment gloomy
incredulity, suspicion, delight, pride, admiration, even affection,
struggled for mastery in his sullen, staring eyes and open, twitching
mouth. For here was Clarence Brant, handsomer than ever, more superior
than ever, in the majesty of uniform and authority which fitted him--the
younger man--by reason of his four years of active service, with the
careless ease and bearing of the veteran! Here was the hero whose name
was already so famous that the mere coincidence of it with that of the
modest civilian he had known would have struck him as preposterous.
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