The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1890-09-13

tsonabiy lovely girl at her side. lntru-
siveness she might resent, but lndlHer-
ence she would and did. Who was tins
youth, she wondered, who not once had
80 much as stolen look at the sweet,
bonny face of her maiden sister! Surely
twas face any man would love to gaze
upcn-so fair, so exquisite in contour
and feature. SO pearly in complexion
80 lovely in the deep, dark brown OF Its
shaded eyes.
The bold chances of the four card play
ers she had defiantly returned and van
ouished. Those men, like the travelling
gents, were creatures Of coarser mold:
but her experienced eye told her the soil
tary occupant of the opposite section was
q gentleman. The clear cut OF his pale
features, the white, slender hand and
shapefy foot. the style and finish OF Ills
quiet travelling dress. the soft mobilization
and refined tone of his voice on the one
occasion when she heard him reply to
some importantly OF the train boy with
his endless round of equally questionable
figs and fiction, the book he was reading
"a volume of Emerson-all combined to
speak of culture and position equal to
her own. She had been over the trans
continental railways often enough to
know that it was permissible for gentle
men to render their fellow passengers
some slight attention which would lead
to mutual introductions ii desirable: and
this man refused to see that the oppor-
tunity was open TO him.
| True, when first she took her survey
Of those who were to be her fellow trav-
! eiers at the TRANSFER" on the Missouri,
she decided that here was one against
whom it would be necessary to guard the
approaches. She had good and sufficient
| reasons for wanting no young man as at
traotive in appearance as this one max
ing himself interesting to pretty Nellie
ON their journey. She had already de-
cided what was Nellie's future was to be.
Never, indeed, would she have taken
her to the gay frontier station whittier
she was now en- route. had not that flu
ture been already settled to her sarisfac-
ton. Nellie Travers, barely out of school,
was betrothed, and willingly SO, to the
man she, her devoted elder sister, had
especially chosen. Rare and most un-
likely of conditions! she had apparently
fallen in love with the man picked out
for her by somebody else. She was en-
gagged to Mrs. Rayner's fascinating
friend Mr.. Steven Van Antwerp, scion
of an old and esteemed and wealthy
family; and Mr.. Van Antwerp. who had
been educated abroad. and had Heidel-
berg scar ON his LETT cheek, and dark,
lustrous eyes, and wavy hair-almost
raven-was a devoted lover, though
fully fifteen years Miss Nellie's senior.
FuA Of bliss and comfort was Mrs.
Rayner's soul as she journeyed westward
to rejoin her husband at the distant
frontier post she had not seen since the
early spring. Army woman as she was,
| :sorn and bred under the shadow of the
flag, a soldiers daughter, soldiers wife,
she had other ambitions for her beauti.
full Nell. Worldly to the core, she her
self would never have married in the
army but for the unusual circumstance
of q wealthy subaltern among the officers
OF her fathers regiment. Tradition had
It that Mr.. Rayner was not among the
number of those who sighed for Kate
Travers' guarded smiles Her earlier
victims were kept a-dangling until Ray
ner, too. succumbed, and then were sent
adrift. She meant that no pennless SUBJ
altern should carry off her "baby sister"
they had long been motherless-and q
season at the seashore had done her
work well. Steven Van Antwerp, with
genuine distress and loneliness, went
back to his duties in Wall street after
seeing them safely on their way to the
west. Guard her well for me-" he
whispered to Mrs. Rayner. 81 dread
those fellows in buttons" And he shiv-
cred unaccountably as he spoke.
Nellie was pledged, therefore, and this
youth in the Pullman was not one of
"those fellows in buttons. SO far as Mrs.
Rayner knew, but she was ready to
warn him off, and meant to do SO, until,
to her surprise, she saw that ne gave NO
symptom of desire to approach. By
noon OF the second day she was as deter.
mined to extract from him some sign OF
interest as she had been determined t.
resent it. can i'll no wise explain O,
account for this The fact is stated
without remark.
What on earth can we be stopping &C
long here for?" was Mrs. Rayner's some.
what petulant inquiry, addressed to nc
one in particular. There was no reply
Miss Travers was busily twitching the
ears of the kitten at the moment and
sparring with appraised finger ut the
threatening paw.
DO look out of the window, Nell, and
see." "10
There is nothing to see, Kate-notb.
ing but Xhiriincr drifts and n L.; -.