The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-07-23

a Crash comes.
Anything might turn up any day
for any one. Perhaps the senior sub
altern had been trapped in his youth
Men are crippled that way OCCASION
ally. We didn't know-we wantee
to hear; and the captains wives were
as anxious as we. If he had been
trapped he was to be excused, for the
woman from no where, in the dusty
shoes and gray travelling dress, was
very lovely, with black hair and
great eyes full OF tears. She was tall,
with a fine figure, and her voice had
a running sob in it pitiful to hear.
AS soon as the senior subaltern stood
up she threw her arms round his neck
and called him my darling" and
said she could not bear waiting alone
in England, and his letters were so
short and cold, and she was his to the
end OF the world, and would he forgive
her? This did not sound qnite like a
lady's way of speaking. It was too
demonstrative.
Things seemed black indeed, and
the captains wives peered under their
eyebrows at the senior subaltern,
and the colonePs face set like the day
of judgement framed in gray bristles,
and no one spoke for awhile.
Next the colonel said very shortly,
"Well, sir?" and the woman sobbed
afresh. The senior subaltern was half
choked with the arms round his neck,
but he gasped out, cts ad-lie Inever
had a wife in my life!" Don't swear"
said the colonel. "Come into the
mess. We must sift this clear some
how" And he sighed to himself; for he
believed i'm his "Shikarris," did the
colonel.
We trooped into the ante-room un-
der the full lights, and there we saw
how beautiful the woman was. She
stood up in the middle of us all, some
times choking with crying, then, hard
and proud, and then holding out her
arms to the senior subaltern. It was
like the fourth act of a tragedy. 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 vas white, and ashy gray,
trying now and again to break into
AAS CO41Cl1O NoIuo, Lll1u
how lovely she was and what a. crimi-
nal helooked, esteemed him a beast of
the worst kind. We felt sorry forhim
though.
shall never forget the Indictment
OF the senior subaltern by his wife.
Nor will he. It was so sudden, rush
ing out Of the dark unannounced into
u dull lives. The captains wives
stood back, but their eyes were alight,
andyou could see that they had al
ready convicted and sentenced the
senior subaltern. The colonel seemed
tive years older. One major was shad-
ing his eyes with his hand and watch
ing the woman from underneath it.
Another was chewing his mustache
and smiling quietly as if he were wit
Messing a play. Full in the open
space in the center by the whist tables
the senior subalteran's terrier was
hunting for heas. remember all this
as clearly as though a. photograph
were in my hand. I remember the
look of horror On the senior subal-
terms face. It was rather like seeing
q man hanged, but much more inter-
esting. Finally thewoman wound up
by saying that the senior subaltern car
ried a double F. M. in tattoo on his
left shoulder. We all knew that, and
to- our innocent minds it seemed to
clinch the matter. But one OF the
bachelor majors said very politely,
81 presume that your marriage certii-
cate would be more tothe purpose?"
That reused the woman. She stood
up and sneered at the senior subaltern
for a cur, and abused the major and
the colonel and all the rest. Then she
wept, and then she pulled a. paper
from her breast, saying imperiously,
"Take that! And let my husband
my lawfully welded husband-read it
aloud if he dare!"
There vas a hush, and the men
looked into each Others eyes as the
senior subaltern came forward in a
dazed and dizzy way and took the
paper. We were wondering, as we
stared, whether there was anything
against any one of us that might turn
up later on. The senior subaltern's
throat az dry; but as he a his eye
over the paper, he broke out into a
hoarse 'cackle of relief and said to the
womam. "You young blackguard!"
But the woman had fled through a
door, and or the paper was written;
"This is to certify that I, the Worm,
have paid in full my debts to the
senior subaltern; and, further, that the
seni>r subaltern is my debtor, by
agreement on the BAD of FEBRUARY, as by
the mess iattested, to the extent Of one
months captains pay, in the lawful
currency of the Indian empire"
Then a d%eputation set off for The
Worms quarters, and found him,
betwixt and between, unlacing his
stays, with the hat, wig, serge dress,
etc., on the bed. He came over as he
was, and the "Shikarris" shouted.til
the gunners' mess sent over to know
II they might have a share of the fun,
l think we were all, except the colonel
and the senior subaltern, a little
disappointed that the scandal had
come to nothing. But this is human
nature. There could be no two words
about The Worms acting. It leaned
as neal to a nasty tragedy as any
thing this side OF a joke can.
When most of the subalterns sat
upon him with sofa cushions to find
n ~114 IL - - r a." ~ re-