The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-09-04

with getting his company and his &C
ceptance at the same time that he
forgot to bother The Worm. The
girl was a pretty girl and had mon
ey OF her own. She does not come
into this story at all.
One night at beginning Of the hot
weather all the mess except The
| Worm, who had gone to his own
room to write home letters, were sit
ting on the platform outside the
mess house. The band had finished
playing, but no one wanted to go in.
And the captains wives were there
also, The Jolly OF man in love is
unlimited. The senior subaltern had
been holding forth on the merits Of
the girl he was engaged to, and the
ladies were purring approval, while
the men yawned, when there was a
rustic OF skirts in the dark and a
tired. faint voice lifted itself:
"Where is my husband"'
I do not wish iii the least to reflect
on the morality Of the "Shikarris,
but it is on record that four men
jumped up as if they had been shot.
Three of them We're married men.
Perhaps they were afraid that their
wives had come from home unbe-
Enownst, The fourth said that he
had acted on the impulse OF the mo-
ment. He explained this afterward.
Then the voice cried: "Oh, Lionel!'
Lionel was the senior subaltern's
| ~, s,,+~ III
tie circle of light by the candles on
the peg tables, stretching out hel
hands to the dark where the senior
subaltern was and sobbing. We
rose to our feet feeling that things
were going to happen and ready to
believe the worst In this bad, small
world Of ours one knows so little of
the life Of the next man, which after
all is entirely his own concern, that
one is not surprised when a crash
comes. III
/ Anything might turn up any day
for any one. Perhaps the senior sub
aItern had been trapped in his youth.
Men are crippled that way OCCASION
ally. We didn't know; we wanted to
hear, and the captains wives were as
anxious as we If he had been trapped
he was to be excused, for the woman
tromnowhere, in the dusty shoes and
gray travelling dress, was very lovely,
with black hair and great eyes full of
tears, She was tall, with fine figure,
and her voice had a running sob in
lit pltiful to hear. As soon as the
/ senior snbaltern stood up she threw
1 her arms round his neck and called
him my darling" and said she could
not bear waiting alone in England,
and his letters We're SO short and cold
and she was his to the end of the
world, and would he forgive her?
This did notsound quite like lady's
way of speaking. 1t was to demon
strative.
Things seemed black indeed, and
the captains wives peered under
their eyebrows at the senior subaltern
and the colonies face set like the day
!. oflndgment framed in gray bristles,
and no one spoke for awhile.
Next the colonel said very shortly:
swell, sir?' and the woman sobbed
afresh. The senior subaltern was
half choked buth upted out: s'It's
a id lie! | never had a wife in my
life!" Don't swear,' said the col
onel. "Ccme into the mess. We
must sift this clear somehow and
he sighed to himself, for he believed
in his "Shikarris,' did the colonel.
We trooped into the anti-room,
under the full lights, and there we
saw how beautiful she was. She
stood up in the middle of us all,
sometimes choking with crying. then
hard and proud, and then holding
out her arms to the senior subaltern.
1t was like the fourth act OF a trag-
edv. She told us how the senior
subaltern had married her when he
was home on leave eighteen months
before, and she seemed to know all
that we knew, and more too, OF his
people and his past life. He was
white and ashy gray, trying now
and again to break into the torrent
OF her words; and we, noting how
lovely she was and what criminal
ne looked, esteemed him a beast of
the worst kind. We felt sorry for
him, though.
shall never forget the Indictment
OF the senior subaltern by his wife.
Nor will he. It was 50 sudden, rush
ing out OF the dark unannounced in
to our dull lives. The captains wives
stood back, but their eyes were alight,
and you could see that they had all
ready convicted and sentenced the
senior subaltern. Colonel seemed five
years older. One major was shading
his eyes with his hasld and watching
the woman from underneath it. An
other was chewing his mustache and
smiling quietly as if he were witness
ing aplay. Full in the open space in
the center by the whist tables the
senior subaltern's terrier was hunting
iorHea lremember'all this as clear
4 " as though a photograph were in
my hand. : remember thelook OF
horror on the senior subaltern' s face.
1t was rather like seeing man hang
i ed, but much more intnrestinr HI