nine o'clock before
Afar over beyond the barren level of the cavalry plain the gilded hands of the tower-clock on `` the old Academic '' were blended into one in proclaiming to all whom it might concern that it was five minutes past the half-hour ` twixt seven and eight , and there were girls in every group , and many a young fellow in the rigid line of gray and white before them , resentful of the fact that dress parade was wofully late and long , with tattoo and taps only two hours or so away . The season for the regular summer `` hops '' had not yet begun , for this was away back in the eighties , when many another old West Point fashion still prevailed ; but there was to be an informal dance in the dining-room of the hotel , and it could n't come off until after supper , and supper had to be served to some people who were `` pokey '' enough to care to come by late boat , or later train , and were more eager to see the cadets on parade than to seek Mine Host Craney 's once bountiful table . What made it more exasperating was that rumors were afloat to the effect that the adjutant had long and important orders to publish , and this would still further prolong the parade . Cadet Private Frazier , First Class , one of the best dancers in the battalion , was heard to mutter to his next-door neighbor in the front rank of the color company : `` It 'll be nine o'clock before we get things going at the hotel , and we 've got to quit at nine-thirty . _ Con _ found the orders ! '' And yet , peering from under the visor of his shako , Mr. Frazier could see without disturbing the requisite pose of his head , `` up and straight to the front , chin drawn in , '' that over near the south end of the row of gayly attired visitors , seated or standing at the edge of the camp parade-ground , there was one group , at least , to whom , as Frazier knew , the orders meant much more than the dance . There , switching the short grass with his stocky cane , stood their grim senior surgeon , Doctor , or Major , Graham .