Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-03-01

Of birth and breeding, and YET one who
might have resented the intimation that
shs was not strikinsly handsome.
Iof her own; her bead was high. her step
was firm; u was of Just such walk e
hers that Virgil wrote his "vesa inosssu
Ipa&uit de-" " and abe made The young
imam IN the section by himself think Of
that very passage a. he glanced at her
from under his heavy, bushy eyebrows
She looked, moreover, like . woman
with capacity for influencing people
contrary 10 their viii and Judgment, and
with decided fondness for the exercise
Of that unpopular function. There was
tho air Of grande dame about her, despite
the simplicity Of her dress, which, though
sof rich material, was severely plain.
She wore no jewelry. Her hands were
snugly gloved and undisHgured BY the
distortions Of any ring except the mar
viage circlet. Her manner attested her
. person Of consequence In her social
circle and ono who realized the fact.
She had repelled, though without rude
ness or discourtesy, the garrulous efforts
Of the motherly knitter to be sociable.
She had promptly inspired the small,
candy crusted explorer with such awe
that he had refrained from further visits
after his first confiding attempt to. poke
asticky finger through the baby's velvety
cheek. She had spared little scorn in her
rejection Of the bourgeois advances Of
the commercial traveller with the Ian
gushing eyes Of Israel; he oonfided to
his comrades, in relating the incident,
that she was smart enough to see that IL
wasn't her he was hankering to know,
but the pretty sister by her side; and
when challenged to prove that they were
sisters-a statement which aroused the
skepticism Of his shrewd associates-he
had replied, substantially;
"How do know2 Cause I saw their
pass before you was up this morning,
Gully. It's for Mrs. Capt. Rayner and
sister. and they're going out here to Fort
Warrener. That's how I know" And
the porter Of the car had confirmed the
statement in the sanctity Of the smoking
room.
And yet-such Is the uncertainty Of
feminine temperament-Mrs. Rayner
was iiO LIIOI0 IlCcLSSu 0t tuc COtuu1cICIhi
"gent" because he had obtruded his at
tentions than she was at the young man
reading in his own section because he
had refrained. Nearly twenty-four hours
had elapsed since they crossed the Mis-
souri,, and in all that time not once had
she detected in him glance that be-
trayed the faintest interest in her or
still more remarkable-in the unques-
tionably lovely girl at her side. Intru-
siveness she might resent, but indiffer-
ence she would and did. Who was this
youth, che wondered, who not once had
40 much as stolen look at the sweet,
bonny face of her maiden sister? Surely
twas face any man would love to gaze
upon--so fair, so exquisite in contour
and feature, SO pearly in complexion,
so lovely in the deep, dark brown Of its
shaded eyes.
The bold glances Of the four card play
ers she had defiantly returned and van
quished. Those men, like the travelling
gents, were creatures of coarser mold;
but her experienced eye told her the soli-
tary occupant Of the opposite section was
gentleman The clear cut of his pale
features, the white, slender hand and
shapely foot, the style and finish of his
quiet travelling dress, the soft modulation
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 il 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 we're to bs her fellow trav-
elers at the transfer on the Missouri,
she decided that hero was one against
WILSON, it would be necessary TO guard the
approaches. She had good and sufficient
reasons for wanting no young man as at
tractive in appearance as this one max
ing himself interesting to pretty Nellie
on their journey. She had already de-
cided what was Mel 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 fu-
ture been already settled to her satisfac-
tion. 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, a 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 left cheek, and dark
lustrous eyes, and wavy hair-almos
raven-was devoted lover, though
fully fifteen years Miss Nellie's senior.
Full of bliss and comfort was Mrs
Rayner's soul as she journeyed westward
to rejoin her husband at the distan
frontier post she had not seen since th'
early spring. Army woman as she was
born and bred under the shadow Of tn
flag, a soldiers daughter, a soldiers wife
she had other ambitions for her besuti
full Nell. Worldly to the core, she her
self would never have married in tn
army but for the unusual circumstanc
Of wealthy subaltern among the officer
of her fathers regiment. Tradition ha
it that Mr.. Rayner was not among tn
number Of those who sighed for Kat
Travers' guarded smiles. Her earle
victims were kept a-dangling until Ray
ner, too, succumbed, and then were Ser
| adrift She maant that No uonniIeRs nil