San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-29

y
The girl whom he loved had forgiven hin
again and again for his wanderings and had
tried to help him build up his shattered life.
At last she had applied tho heroic remedy and
sent him o letter to say that she would not
consent to see him again until he could come
to her clothed and in his right mind"
''Sho was right, major, and say now and
will say with my last breath, God bless her
for her sweet faithfulneSs to duty"
In a desperate mood Herbert Jauvrin had
sold his commission taken steamer for Amer
lea and for while had passed O life of gay
dissipation in New York and other American
cities At last the inevitable crisis came.
dis money had gone and SO were the friends
of his butterfly summer. When his last dollar
had been spent he enlisted in a regiment then
at the 'front.' in the hope that friendly bull
let would soon end his troubles. The bullet
had come all too soon, and had found him
realizing in his life as private soldier what
Helen Conyngham had tried to impress upon
him about faithfulness to duty. 1t was hard
for him. he said but no doubt it was better
for her. Only she would be glad to hear that
he had died soldiers death.
The major tried to speak encouraging
words when he babe the soldier good night,
but even then he feared that they might
never meet again in life. Indeed, when he
went to the hospital tent next morning the
death dew was on Private Jauvrins forehead
and he could only!speak in the faintest whis-
per and with catches of the breath as he
asked him to pray for him. Maj. Estes
knelt beside the dying man and in low tones
uttered the Lords Prayer, holding the clam
my hands clasped in his own.
Thank you-am | dying now" were the
next words The major could not speak, He
only looked sadly into the eyes of the private
soldier who in a brief minute was to know
the secret of the eternities
They buried Herbert Jauvrin in the little
cemetery of the cavalry corps on the banks
of the Appomattox. But his ashes do not
repOse there. They rest under a costly mon
ument in the parish church of his fathers in
England, and under his name is the legend,
Dead on the field Of honor"
When Mai Estes, after his return to camp,
opened in the secrecy of his tent the little
portfolio which Herbert Jauvrin had be-
queathed to him, he had no premonition that
literally he held his fate in his own hands.
There was lOcket Of EtruscGn gold in one of
the pockets, and when he hG' opened it he
held it before him as if b. ...... zen turned
to marble by the sight. TEc lace was beauti-
full beyond anything he had ever seen-at
least, so it seemed TO him. Golden hair and
blue eyes and thehnouth of Hebe; intellect
and health and grace were there, and with
Incompatible beauty a frmness as gentle as
velvet and as hard as iron. As he gazed he
understood tho whole story of the hapless love
which had ended 50 disastrous!y and yet not
hopelesSly.
The letters of Helen Conyngha:.l were a
further revelation of her sweet wO!la.:.iless
They pleaded with a pathetic simplicity ICr
the better life Of the man she loved, LIT she
never for a moment concealed Rro:H E!"l ,"
from herself the fact that she cOI.I ..-.-T
marry a man who voluntarily C.eH2GCi!ed
himself from the high standard Sic I'D SCI.
Even her last edict of Punishment was only
plea for her lost loves redemption.
1t was a painful task to write to the rola-
tiveS of Herbert Jauvrin-moSt painful of all
to break the news of his death to tho woman
be had loved. He inclosed her own letters to
Miss Conynham-all except a little formal
note accepting an invitation to drive, though
why he had retained this he could not ex-
plain to himself. The locket he promised to
forward by friends who were going to Es;-
land
Somehow the locket did not go, and it
would have puzzled his friends had he been
killed and this unknown face found among
the papers he always carried with him. He
came to regard it as his tutelary divinity
and had faint superstition that it had rem
dercd aim imperyious to bullets At any
rate, be found it easy to make excuses for
lis detention in the correspondence which
PISSED between the original and himself, and
TEica he found so pleasant that he continued
it long after the close OF the war.
Finally Maj. Estes wrote that 10 had been
appointed consul to one Of the cities Of Eng
gland and that he would take an early OPP
portunity to restore the portrait in person.
When the portiere that covered the en-
trance TO one Of the handsomest houses in
Cbeltenham, had been pushed aside and Helen
Conygham magnificent in her beauty, en-
tered, Maj. Estes heart beat SO hard that be
could scarcely speak, and, indeed, he never
knew what he did say. What his heart was
saying was, My queen For it fell down
and wOrshiped her then and there and never
Swervud afterwards from its allegiance
They were soon well acquainted-these two
and though the major fell in love atonce, or
rather recognized at oncothe fact that he had
been in love ever since ho opened the locket,
it was long before he dared think that he was
specially favored by her and longer still be-
fore no dared speak.
1t was the dead soldier who gave the major
his wife They often spoke of him. The
English maiden loved to hear him tell of his
battles and campaigning, AMI fancied that it
waS not because tho major was a hero in her
eyes, whilo be- modest man, never dreamed
Of czalting bis own deeds.
One evening they wandered in tho old Eng