The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-05-25

both blame and pity in eracously gay way
that made the majority sorry that they bad
| proffered either to her. If she shed any tears
over the downfall of that basket OF eggs no
one was bit the wiser; and it is recorded OF
her that though she was perfectly satisfied
with the way sue had played her own part In
| the genteel comedy, she would never have
word of anything like censure applied to
| Hazeton. She showed herself without fear.
and she declared him to be without reproach.
How it might have been with her if she
had been compelled to stay in the nelghoor-
hood don't know, but just at this juncture
her father was appointed to post in large
naval establishment in garrison town. 1t
was an awful place for her to be put in, but
she went there reliant, and soon reiened as
queen of the whole brigade. She was just
learning her power, and it came into play
very pret'y IS it seemed at fist; for she
was not only young, but brighter, ard fairer
and truer, we all fanced, tan any of the
other girls in the place. We admired her
for the unconventional freedom of manner
that was always well-bred, and the fearless
ness that led her to let fellow see that she
liked him and enjoyed winning his liking in
return, without any thought of marriage or
humbug in the business. In fact Kate Con-
ningsby made herself our friend and comrade.
There were four of us Assistant Surgeons
on the staff of the establishment at the time
all young, and all Irishmen into the bargain.
/ don't think that it had ever occurred to
Kate, who is an Irishwoman, to pride her
self very much upon her nature until she fell
in with us. But liking us, and discovering
| with her seX's untalli2g instinct that we
liked her equally well in return, she let the
compatriotship pave the way to one OF those
dolusive intimacles that | egn in friendship
sefely enough, but that slide off into love be-
fore you know where you are.
She WIS so Jolly and frank with US all,
never playing one off against the other, or
attemptirG ID make the one that might be
| present with her believe that she preferred
him to any one of the three who were absent,
that the Irish team became proverb for its
| loyalty TO her and for the admirable way in
which the four were 'One for all-all for one.'
| believe that we should have borne individ-
ual disapL ointment in the matter blithey
enough, and rejoiced in the victor's success,
1t she had married any one of the Irish team.
Rat before we had time to put it to the touch
| Captain LennoX came. to stay with his
| uncle, the Governor of the place, and from
| the time his figure appeared on the canvass
we saw that the bonny Kate might be COM
rade and friend still, but never more than
| that to any one of US.
| He was good-looking, tawny-moustached,
well-set-up fellow, this Lennox, good type
| of the aristocratic Engshman; and Kate
didn't see in him at the time what the rest of
us saw very clearly-that he was rather m
| clined to fancy his position in the place, and
| give himself overbearing airs to other men.
The fact OF it was that the curse of the quar-
| ter deck system in the service pervaded the
| whole social atmosphere of the establishment
| to pernicious extent. Aud though Kate
hadn't bit of it about her, and by virtue of
her popularity was quite beyond its influence,
still she was blind 10 the fault she despsed
when il developed in Lennox and she let
| him mOuQDoliZa her and uram into bind Of
fellowship with him that separated her from
US, her older friends, in great measure, and
for the first time caused us to call our favorite
flirt.
But there was no Irritation in the matter
in reality. 1t came upon both the man and
the girl that they were very much in earnest
as soon as his egment got the route for In
Ola. She would have gone with him on his
pay-for he had nothing else, poor fellow
gladly enough, and he would have taken her
as gladly; aud if they had followed their own
impulses Kate would have been a happier
woman this day, and Lennox might have
been alive. But his friends pointed out the
folly of it, and her friends pointed out the
folly OF it, and the end of 1t was that he went
away without her.
She wouldn't show sign of the pain she
felt to any one of her rivals in the place, who
| were watching for the evidence of weakness.
But she told me just enough to convince me
that her heart had gone with Lennox. They
had their parting on little tree-shaded
bridge that crossed a stream that runs
through one OF the sweetest little valleys in
Kent, and be promised to come back and
claim her in couple of years, and she prom
ised to wait fer him; but there was no &C.
| knoWledged bond between them, and it was
decreed that they were not to correspond.
You see she said 10 me, pve none of the
honor and glory and Importance of an en-
Il anrf TO- @a;, r
| have letter all the while to remind me if l
begin to waver; but if know myself at all, 1
can wait twenty years. And whatever may
| seem in reality, shall hold myself as much
bound to Lennox as if were married to
him. And believed her then, and l be-
lieve her now, for all that has come to pass
since then.'
| Jack paused for moment, and could see
that his memory was travelling back very ten
| DERBY to the day when Kate Conngsby made
him her confidant. go ON with the I.ennox
| eplsode-for 1t was only an episode, feel
sure," said gently. sit ended in some
other woman coming in between them, prob
ably. should never feel satisfied.of the fidel-
ity of any man who left me with such fee
BILE bond between us. 1t ended in her being
thrown over again, suppose? Poor Katew
ut ended in worse than that, "Jack said
sadly. And then he went on to tell me what
follows.
CHAPTER II.
"There was very little smooth sailing for
poor Kate after Lennox left, Jack went on;
the women were always at her mother, tell
ing her what "a pity it was that Kate should
De wasting her time in thinking about man
who had never proposed properly to her
father for her, and who would be sure to for
get her soon; and some of the younger men
from the garrison fattered the girl herself
into making an exhibition of Indifference
which she did not feel toward her absent
lover. But she was high couraged young
creature in those days, and she trod the
thoIny path without ever so much as show
ing that she felt the prickles. So she rode
| daily with her cavalcade OF ill mounted
admirers, and danced with them two or three
times week at the military balls and assem-
blies, and laughed my advice to scorn, when
used to tell her that Lennox would hear of
it and not like it.
You know how much love him, jack
she would say to me, "but if adjured all the
pomps and vanities, and turned myself into
| cricket on the hearth during his absence,
shouldn't be the girl Lennox fell in love with
when he came back. Don't you be frightened;
ne trusts me as entirely as l trust him, and if
| heard that he rode every morning and
danced every night with the prettest woman
| in the Presidency, should only be glad that
| he had such good luck
| - Wo' wAIO tuiuSo were III luis SLaLo LQaC
Captain Coningsby, her father died; and
you know, OF you don't know, yet, Helen,
how everything that shas been real and sub
stantial to the wife and family of an officer
becomes unsubstantial and not to be grasped
when they are transformed into his widow
and orphans. The change is from lively to
severe with vengeance in all cases, but
never, perhaps. more thoroughly so than in
the case of Kate Coningsby.
| She bore it all like a brick we all felt that
! she did, for there seemed to US at the time
| something heroic in the way in which the
| poor child stood erect still, under the blow
| of leaving the handsome home and parting
with the pretty pony. We had seen other
families turn out from the place under even
sadder circumstances, but we all cursed the
parsimony OF a service which awarded such a
niggardly pension to the mother of Kate
Conngsby. But at that time she had the
art Of bearing every reverse beautifully. and
she would have walked to workhouse grace
fully, believe.
A month or two after this I was appointed
to ship that was commissioned for three