Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-03-15

go 40 4, Aase; Uus tMey never nave,
and never will. especially with an CO.
gagged girl. have more to complain Of
than you, but Il doesn't make me for
lorn, whereas you look fearfuIly worried
about nothing"
"Who says I'm worriedr' asked Mrs.
Rayner, with sudden vehemence.
"You look worried, Kate, and havent
been at all like yourself for several days.
Now. why shouldn't go to the hospital
with your Why do you tsy to hide your
going from mc7 Don't you know that I
must have heard the strange stories that
are fitting about the garrison7 Haven't
asked you to set me right u I-have
been told wrong one3 Kate, you arc
fretting yourself to death about some
thing, and the captain looks worried and
III. cannot but think II has some con-
nection withthe case Of Mr.. Hayne. Why.
sbould the Claucys''---
"You have no right to think any such
thing" answered her sister, angrily.
1--WE have suffered too much at his
hands or on his account already, and
never want to hear such words from
your lips. Il would outrage Capt. Ray.
ner to hear that my sister, to whom he
has given home and a welcome, was
linking herself with those who side with
that--that thief"
words? How dare you speak 90 Of an
officer? You would not tell me what he
was accused Of; but I tell you that il it
bc theft I don't believe it, and no one
else"--
There was q sudden football on the
porch without, and quick, sharp, inn
perative knock at the door. Mrs. Ray
ner fed back along tho hall towards the
dining room. Miss Travers. hesitating
but q second, opened the door.
1t as.the soldier telegraph operator
with q dispatch envelope in his hand.
at Is for Mrs. Rayner, miss, and an
answer is expected. Shall waity'
Mrs. Rayner came hastily forward
from her place of refuge within the din
ing room, took the envelope without
word and passed into the parlor, where,
standing beneath the lamp, she tore IL
open, glanced anxiously at its contents,
then threw It with an exclamation of
peevish indignation upon the table.
You'll have to answer for yourself,
Nellie. cannot straighten your affairs
and mine too" And with that she was
going. but Miss Travers called her back.
The message simply read: mo letter
in four days. Is anything wrong? An
swer paid" and was addressed to Mrs.
Rayner and signed s. v. A.
81 think you have been extremely neg
lectful," said Mrs. Rayner, who had
turned and now stood watching the
rising color and impatiently tapping foot
of her younger sister. Miss Travers bit
her lips and compressed them hard.
There was an evident struggle in her
mind between desire to make an inn
pulsive and sweeping reply and an effort
" control herself.
"Will you answer quiet question or
two?" che finally asked.
"You know perfectly well Twill, was
the sisterly rejoinder.
"How long does it take letter to go
from here to New York;"
Give or six days, I suppose"
Miss Travers stepped to the door, briefly
told the soldier there was no answer,
thanked him for waiting, and returned.
"You are not going to replyY" asked
Mrs. Rayner. in amaze.
~ am not; and inferred you did not
intend to. Now another question. How
many days have we been here?'
Eight or nine-nine, it is"
"You saw me post letter to Mr.. Van
Antwerp as we left the Missouri, did you
not?"
"Yes. At least suppose So"
81 wrote again as soon as we got
settled here, three days after that, did I
not?'
"You said you did," replied Mrs. Ray
ner, ungraciously.
"And you, Kate, when you are your
self have been prompt to declare that l
say what mean. Very probably it may
have been four days from the time that
letter from the transfer reached Wall
street to the time the next one could get
to him from here, even had ! written the
night we arrived. Possibly you forget
that you forbade my doing SO, and sent
me to bed early. Mr.. Van Antwerp has
simply failed to remember that had gone
several hundred miles farther west; and
even had written on the train twice a
day, the letters would not have reached
him uninterruptedly. BY this time he is
beginning TO get them fast enough. And
as for you, Kate, you are quite as unjust
as he. 1t augurs badly for my future
peace; and-I am learning two lessons
here, Kate"
"What two, pray?"
"That he can be foolishly unreliable
in estimating woman"
"And the other?'
"That you may be persistently unreli-
able in your judgment of man."
Verify, for a young woman with a
sweet, girlish face, whom we saw but a
week agone twitching kittens ears and
saying little or nothing, Miss Travers
was displaying unexpected fighting quail
tiles. For moment, Mrs. Rayner glared
at her in tremulous indignation and dis
may.
"You-you ought to be ashamed Of
yourselfl" was her eventual outbreak.
But to this there was no reply. Miss
Travers moved quietly to the doorway,
the eye, and said:
81 shall give up the walk and will go
to my room. Excuse me TO any visitors
this evening""
"You are not going to write to him
now, when you are angry, hope?"
81 shall not write to him until to-mor-
row, but when do shall tell him this,
Kate: that if he desire my confidence he
will address his complaints and inquiries
to me. If am old enough to DO engaged
to him, in your opinion, am equally old
enough to attend to such details as these,
in my own"
Mrs. Rayner stood one moment as
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