about ten o'clock
Among these men were competent drill-masters , and among the drill-masters the most active and efficient was the Saxon soldier , Sergeant Wolf . Mr. Gleason had invited the ladies to walk out on the prairie east of the post one lovely morning late in June , that they might see the skirmish drills of the two cavalry troops . Often as she had been a spectator before , Mrs. Truscott never tired of watching Jack and his men , and Miss Sanford was greatly interested at all times in the martial exercises , especially the mounted . Strolling homeward about ten o'clock , having been joined by one of the young infantry officers , Mr. Gleason suggested their stopping at the store and refreshing themselves with a lemonade . Miss Sanford would have declined with thanks , but silently waited for her hostess to speak ; and Mrs. Truscott , who remembered how papa had sometimes called her into the club-room when she was a child , and who knew that the garrison ladies frequently accepted such invitations , hesitatingly assented . It must be confessed that Mrs. Truscott sometimes acted before she thought , and this was one of the times . Truscott himself rarely , if ever , entered the club-room , and had never thought it necessary to say anything to his wife on the subject .