The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1890-11-27


1HA still the gay party fingered on
the veranda. There had been
fortnight Of getting settled" at the
new post, preceded by month of mach
ing that had brought the battalion from
distant service to this strange Texan sta
ton. The new corners had been hospita-
bly, welcomed by the officers of the Ettle
garrison Of infantry, and now, in recog-
milton of their many courtesies, the field
officer commanding the arriving troops
had been entertaining the resident Off
GERS and ladies at dinner The colonel
was host in himself, but preferred not
to draw too heavily on his reserves of
anecdote and small talk, so he had called
in two Of his subalterns to assist in the
pleasant duty of being attentive to the
infantry ladies, and just now, at 1:45 p.
M, he was wondering if Lieut.. Perry
had not too literally construed his in
structions, for that young gentleman
was devoting himself to Mrs. Belknap in
a manner so marked as to make the cap
tain. her lawful lord and master, mani
festly uneasy.
Mrs. Belknap, however, seemed to en-
Joy the situation immensely. She was
a pretty woman at most times, as even
her rivals admitted. She was beauti-
full woman at all times, was the verdict
of the officers of the regiment when they
happened to speak of the matter among
themselves. She was dark, with lus-
trous eyes and sweeping lashes, with
coral lips and much luxuriance of tress,
and a way of glancirg sideways from
under her heavily fringed eyelids that
the younger and more impressionable
men found quite irresistible when ac-
corded the rare luxury of tete-a-tete.
Belknap was big and boisterous man;
Mrs. Belknap was small in stature, and
soft-very soft-of voice. Belknap was
either brusquely repellent or oppressively
cordial in manner; Mrs. Belknap was
either gently and exasperatingly indif-
ferent to those whom she did not care to
attract, or caressingly sweet to those
whose attentions she desired.
In their own regiment the young Off
GERS soon found that unless they wished
to be involved in an unpleasantness with
Belknap it was best.to be only very mod
erately devoted to his pretty wife, and
those to whom an unpleasantness with
the big captain might have had no ter
rors of consequence were deferred by
the fact that Mrs. Belknaps devotee
among the youngsters" had invariably
become an object of coldness and aver
sion to the other DANES and damsels of
the garrison. Very short lived, there
| fore, had been the little fiirtations that
| sprang up from time to time in those
| frontier posts wherein Capt and Mrs.
| Belknap were among the chief orna-
ments of society; but now matters
seemed to be taking other shape. From
the very day that handsome Ned Perry
dismounted in front of Belknap's quar-
ters and with his soldiery salute reported
| to the then commanding officer that Col
| Brainard and his battalion of cavalry
would arrive in the course of two ol
three hours, Mrs. Belknap had evinced q
contentment in his society and assumed
an air of quasi-Proprietorship that served
to annoy her garrison sisters more than
little. For the time being all the cav
alrymen were bachelors, either by &C
tual rank or ''by brevet," as none of the
ladies of the -th accompanied the bat
talon on its march, and none were ex
pected until the stations of the regiment
in its new department. had been definite
ly settled. The post surgeon, too, wa!
living life of single blessedness Us ths
early spring wore on, for his good wife
had betaken herself, with the children
| 20 90 NJ hn y,
pearance of the winters SHOWS rendered
staging over the hard prairie roads :
matter of no great danger or discomfort
1t was the doctor himself who, seated
In an easy chair at the end of the We
randa, first called the colonels attention
to Perry's devotional attitude at Mrs
Belknap's side. She was reclining in ;
hammock, one little, slippered foot occa
sionally touching the floor and impart
affair, and making a soothing swish
ewish of skirts along the mating under
meath. Her jeweled hands looked yer,
slender and fragile and white as the,
cleaned in the soft light that shon
from the open windows of the parlor
They were busted in Strengthening on
the kinks in the gold cord of his forag
cap and in reafranging q little silkel
braid and tassel that was Fastened in
clumsy, man like fashion to one of th
buttons at the side; he, seated in cam
chair, was bending forward so that hi
handsome, shapely head was only
trifie higher than hers, and the two
hers so dark and rich in coloring, b
80 fair and massive and strong cam
rather too close together for the equs
ninity of Capt. BelkRap, who had e
sayed to take hand at whist in the pa
:, lor.
81 One or two of the ladies, also, we
,, silent observers Of the scene-silent as
! the scene because, being in conversatie
5 at the time with brother officers of Lieu
81 Perry, they were uncertain as yet 10
comments on his growing Irritation migl
be received. That their eyes should 0
casionally wander towards the hammo<
u md flon rlonoo