Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-03-14

Of rich material, was severely plain.
She wore no jewclry. Her hands were
snugly glovcd and undisfeured by the
distortions of any ring except the mar
riage circlet. Her manner attested her
person of consequence in her social
circle and one who realized the fact.
She had repealed, though without rude
ness or discourtesy, the garrulous efforts
of the motherly knitter to be sociable.
She had promptly inspired the small,
candy crustcd explorer with such awe
that he had rerraincd from further visits
after his first confding attempt to poke
a sticky 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 contided to
his comrades, in relating the incident,
that she was smart enough to see that it
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 / know? Cause | 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
Warrcncr. That's how / 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 Rayrer
was no more inccnsed at the commercial
gent because he had obtrudcd his at
tentions than she was at the young man
reading in his own section because he
had rcfrained. Nearly twenty-four hours
had elapsed since they crossed the Mis-
souri,, and in all that time not once had
she detected in him a glance that be-
trayed the faintcst interest in her Or
still more remarkable-in the unques-
tionably lovely girl at her side. Intru
sivenes5 she might resent. but indiiGcr-
cncc she would and did. Who was this
youth she wondered, who not once had
50 much as stolen look at the sweet.
bonny face of her maiden sister? Surely
twas a face any man would love to gaze
upon-so fair. 50 exquisite in contour
and feature, so pearly in complexion,
50 lovely in the deep, dark brown of its
shaded eyes.
The bold chances of the four card play
crs she had dcliantly returned and van
pushed. Those mcn, like the travelling
gents, were creatures of coarser mold;
but her experienced eye told her the soil
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 meditation
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 a culture and position equal to
! her own. She had been over the trans
continental railways often enough ~
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 10 see that the oppor-
tunity was open to him.
True, when first she took her survey
of 'tho.a who were t. be her fellow tray
eiers at the "ransfer' on the Missouri,
she decided that here was one against
whom it would be necosSaryto guard the
apprCache.. She had good and sufficient
reasons for wanting no young man as at
tracuve III appearance as this one max
ing himself interesting to pretty Nellie
on their journey. She had already de-
cided what was Ncllic'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 fu-
ture been already settled to her satisfac-
ton. Nellie Travcrs, barely out Of school
was bctrothed, and willingly SO. TO the
man she, her devoted elder sister. had
especially chosen. Rare and most I'M
likely of conditions! she had apparently
fallen in love with the man picked out
for her by somebody else. She was en-
gagged 10 Mrs. Rlynor's fascinating
friend Mr.. Steven Van Antwerp, scioI
of an old and esteemed and wealthy
family; and Nj. Van Antwerp, who hat
been educated abroad, and had a IIeidol
DcI ob,il OI MS Itll NIttk, anu utIh
lustrous eyes, and wavy hair-almOs
raven-was a devoted lover, though
fully fifteen years Miss Nellie's senior
Full Of bliss and comfort was Mrs
Rayner's soul as she journcyed WESTWARD
to rejoin her husband at the distan
frontier post she had not seen since tn,
early spring. Army woman as she was
born and bred under the shadow of TN
flag, soldiers daughter, u soldiers wife
She had other ambitions for her beauti
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 Garlic
victims were kept a-danehng until Ray
ner, too succumbed, and then were sen
adrift. She meant that no penniless sui
altern should carry off her baby sister
they had long been mothcrless-and
| I, a L.