Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-10-05
AIJOR CROSS PRETTY WIFE.

He was melancholy man. / met hin
at my fogy club. did not know his name
In my own mind / looked on him as the
man who always sat in the same corner
smoking Trichinopoli cheroots. He was
very neat as to his dress, and | detected al
once that he had some time or other beer
in the service. His hair was perfectly
white, and the man appeared worn ou
with some secret grief. some mysterious
trouble. l made Major Fowler's acquaint
ance on one Christmas Eve, after having
dined little better than usual, and / wa,
correspondingly elated, and l felt | mus
talk to somebody; 80, faut de mieur, talked
to him. Generally at the Rice and Curry
when member whom we have not been
introduced to addresses us, we put on a
wronged and indignant air-as rule, we
don't answer; if we do we make the mar
who has thus daringly addressed us under
stand his mistake. 1t is thus we assert oui
superiority. Perhaps this is why we have
the reputation of being cliquey.
Why it was l do not know. There is nc
other word for tive "chummed,n liter
ally chummed, at once. We had both
served in the same Presidency. we
had met the same people, but Major
Fowler was senior to me- He had been
through the mutiny. l had not. 1t was a
rather ghastly affair, and | cannot see why
he should have confded it to me. At any
rate, this is what he told me:
| was only Lieutenant then-a Lieu
tenant in the -th Bengal native infantry.
The mutiny had already broken out in our
presidency, but our regiment was supposed
to be particularly well affected. KerIma-
bad was wretched place; it was one OF
the dullest and hottest stations in the
presidency. We were very hard up for
European officers some were on leave-of
course, they were hurrying back as fast as
the p. q 0. boats could carry them some
were on detachment duty, others away on
special employment, but the bulk of them
were on the sick list, for Kerimabad was
an unhealthy hole, although its strategic
importance was too great to allow of its
being unoccupied, and to our regiment had
fallen the duty to occupy it. From the
circumstances | have mentioned Major
Cross, who was in command, and myself
were the only two men on the effective
list. Cross was martinez he had risen
from the ranks, and was extremely relig-
ious. We naturally saw a great deal of
each other.
Major Cross was married, and his wife
was the only white woman on the station.
Not six months before, Major Cross re-
turned from furlough with his bride. OF
course, we all fell in love with her. What
she could have seen in Cross cannot
make out; why she married him, Heaven
knows. Cross, though a most deserving
officer, was perhaps hardly what would be
called gentleman, but his wife was lady
and very beautiful. She must have been
In her 2lst year then. She was blonde
and petite, with dreamy blue eyes and
masses OF curling hair, which gave her
girlish beauty an air of recklessness which
was but an additional charm. Her great
est delight was horse exercise. At early
morning Mrs. Cross was certain to be in
the saddle; in the afternoons, as soon as
ever the sun was low enough, the Majors
wife might have been seen on her dapple
gray Gulf Arab flying across the country,
attended by one or more of her husbands
subordinates.
l had been In love with her from the
first; but / am not an exeitable man, and
perhaps it wasn't genuine love after all.
i know that there was not the faintest
shadow of impropriety in the love, if we
must call it SO, that felt for the Majors
wife. True, | was her willing slave, her
constant cavalier. Perhaps l pitied the
girl married to man twice her age.
man with but two ideas in his head-drill
and discipline. They say that pity is akin
to love-perhaps it is bat | had not the
least idea of running away with Rosa
Cross, not the remotest; my affection for
her was purely platouic-at least it was
until the fatal afternoon when we rode
out together for the last time at Kerima-
bad.
Our horses were walking, their brides
on their necks, our native grooms some fifty
yards behind us on the sandy plain.
Jack" she said to me unfortunately
we were Jack and Rosa now, 81 shan't
be able to bear it much longer. The mail
was in again this morning all my friends
are urging me to go down to Calcutta at
once. | don't think it is fair of the Major
to make poor little woman live with her
heart always in her mouth 0, Jack !"
she sobbed, and the tears ran down her
face, " ! am afraid of the nasty blacks"
Now, this particular remark was pecu-
liraly irritating to Major Cross. Com
as he did, q native regiment, he
disliked the expression. So
angry had he become that Rosa never
dared to use her fayorite expression in
her husbands presence.
"Of course it's very rough on you, but l
don't see any way out of it. You are the
only European in the station. Cross and |
are the only two men here; we can't leave
the place. But you shouldn't let it worry
you; the regiment is well affected
enough"
"Ifs not true, Jack. Only this morning
my husband told me that the regiment is
on the point of mutiny"
The brute No doubt he had told
her.
"Then he was fool for his palms.
replied.
'Ifs very hardP sobbed the girl; for
she was but girl, though she was my
commanding officers wife.
Perhaps | remembered the first fact and
forgot the second when ! took her hand,
and, looking into her eyes, swore that |
would look after her, and that there was
no danger.
She returned the pressure; she was but
acting, as | found out afterward. All
women are actresses, | suppose but did
not dream that the pressure Of her finger
tips, the trusting, loving glance which she
flung upon me through her tears, was but
the cursed bait which was to lure rae to
my destruction.
"Ah, if he would only let me 60" she
said; by morning / should be out of
danger. / am too young to die here,
Jack, and to die as / should have to die p
she added, with shudder.
There was great deal in what she said.
The Major trusted her Just as far as you
could swing tiger by the tail, and never
left her out of his sight, save when l took
her out riding as / was doing now; he
was but a selfish rnffan after all II