Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-10

told any one Of her engagement to VIII
liam Ritchie, and could join in all their
merry talk when it was publicly known
that Mr.. Ritchie had cut out the gen.
erals and majors and captains and colo
nels of army society.
AS for William, he was greatly con-
graduated, and when the major went
back to his quarters with his daughter,
in something of hurry, there was talk
| of trouble with the Indians. It was un-
derstood that William Ritchie was to go
out in six months time to claim his
bride and bear her away before the very
eyes of all those envious warriors.
The major did not profess to be pleased.
That girl who could marry in army
society should choose "a civilian"
amazed him, he openly confessed. But
ga willful woman must have her way"
Cora was of age-full five and twenty.
"William Ritchie is very NICE" Mrs.
Afford said.
mo doubt" the major assented. "But
Cora might have had general"
How glad Genie was when they were
gone! How soon she left off her acting.
Her mother opined that she had been
too gay that summer. Mrs. Ritchie,
who was broken hearted at her Will
liam's choice, came in sometimes and
was apt to wish herself in the tomb Of
her forefathers. But William never
came. He corresponded voluminously
with Miss Cora Standish, who made him
jealous of now one officer and now an.
other, and he felt that he received little
sympathy at home.
At last the time arrived when he was
to go to claim his bride. Between hor-
TOR of having her brought home, ''to
ride over her head" as she expressed it,
and fear that they would induce cher
William" to take up his residence among
them, Mrs. Ritchie was quite distracted.
''She is your cousin" she said to the
girl one day, cor I'd say what think of
that creature. She might have kept
herself with her own kind. Why should
she carry off my boy?"
Then Genie felt so much sympathy
for the bereaved mother that they min
gled their tears.
Mrs. Ritchie would not go to Willis
weddlng-not she, lndeedl
She went so far as to hope that when
he returned he would find her dead of a
i broken heart. But she packed his trunk
| for him and put in a new Bible as her
wedding gift to Cora. Then Will de-
parted.
What with Wills popularity, his moth
er's despair and the doubt as to whether
the young couple would come back to
live or settle down at the fort, this we'd
ding made great deal of talk, and when
time passed on and neither telegram,
letters, nor anything else in the shape of
news arrived, there was some excite
ment. Had there been "trouble with
the Indians" the newspapers would have
revealed the fact. This silence was very
strange.
Old Mrs. Ritchie was sure that Will
was "weaned from her already" and
consigned herself to despair. Genie read
over and over again a poem which began:
Married, married, and not to me!
Is it a dream or can it be?
and pasted it in her scrapbook, and was
! reading it in the honeysuckle arbor
when an expressman paused at old Mrs.
Ritchie's gate and hauled from his
wagon one solitary trunk with "W. r.
upon it. Later Will himself walked up
the road alone, with his portmanteau in
his hand, and stood at his mothers door.
Something had happened. Genie
would have been an angel if she had
grieved over the fact. AS it was she
felt that her little bit of revenge was
ready for her, and revenge was sweet.
and with a merry laugh she skipped
over to the fence that divided the gar
dens and called out:
"Why, how do you do, Will? Where
is Cousin Cora?"
Will turned and looked at her, and
came straight toward her.
"When I reached the majors resi-
dence your cousin Cora had just eloped
with Colonel O'Shaunessy," he said.
GAS the major and Mrs. Colonel O'Shau-
nessy's brother are out hunting the
colonel, thought would return home,
though kindly invited to join the sport"
"Oh" cried Genie, with all the hor-
ror of an innocent girl. CA married
man? Is she like that-as bad as that?"
''It is pretty bad," said William.
"But I'm glad I found her out so soon.
Later would have made it tragedy for
me-and all your fault, Geniep'
"Mine% cried the girl
eyes," said Will. "When you gave me
back my ring you threw me into her
hands. Before that it was only a firta-
ton. never intended it to be anything
else, for my part. But when you used
me SOL
'I used you sol" said Genie. "Why,
William, heard you talking to Cora in
the arbor the night before I gave you
back my ring!'
"No man ever talks that way to the
woman he loves" said William.
Then they turned away from each
other, but though Mrs. Afford wept over
the awful conduct of her sisters daugh-
ter, Genie was happier than she had
been for many moons.
You and may wonder whether Will
liam Ritchie told the truth, or whether
he told half of it, but Genie believed
him.
Before long the gossips of the place
whispered that she intended ''to take