San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-11-21


prophecy that everything would soon be
settled. The renegade bands were al
located" and being slowly hemmed in.
The Twelfth would eat its Christmas
dinner at Pawnee after all, they hoped.
And in st. Louis Miss Guthrie was ex-
erting herself to see that her charming
guests were having the loveliest kind of
time. Dinners, luncheons, cards, thea
tiers and dancing parties followed in
quick succession. The new gowns were
being made as fast as famous modisteS
could evolve and construct them, and
Winifred was rushed from one scene of
gayety TO another.
Nothing could have been more charm
ing than our welcome" wrote Mrs. Ber-
rien to her beloved Dick, nothing more
delightful than the round of entertain
ments to which we are hidden. One has
hardly time to think. AS for writing,
this is the first opportunity have en-
joyed in rtIee days, and we are home
from the tfe2ter but half an hour. Mrs.
Holden comes over every day, ana we
exchange such news as we have OF the
dear old regiment and the dearer ones
who are our especial property. She is
what call genuine woman, and like
her more and more. | must tell you
something | learned through her. The
day after our arrival we were in the
library, and my attention was attracted
by large portrait, apparently crayon
copy of a photograph, that hung over
the mantel. 1t was of a singularly
handsome young man, and | knew at
once he must be Guthrie. 1T is my
brother said Nita, in such a sad, coI.-
strained tone, taken just a few weeks
before his death six years ago. Of
course | could ask no more, but Wini-
fred and | both noted how utterly her
face changed. how unspeakably dis
tressed look came into her eyes. We
could see then why Mrs. Holden should
have said she was haggard and i'll, and
yesterday Mrs. Holden told me some
thing of his story. He was barely twen-
ty-two, the idol of the family and i'm
mensely popular in society. He was as
sistant cashier in one of the big banks
here, and one day the sudden discovery
was made that in some mysterious way
quite large sum was missing, money
for which he was responsible, but he
could not account for it; neither could
anybody else. The matter was investi-
gated thoroughly.
They had detectives everywhere, and
absolutely nothing could be brought up
against young Guthrie. He never gam
bled, never dissipated in any way, was
a model son and brother. Mia was wild
with indignation at his having been
even suspected. Mr.. Guthrie offered to
make good the sum twice over if need
be, and to bind himself for all his
wealth to establish his boys honor, and
for three or four days all was excite
ment, and then, in the midst of it, poor
Jack was found dead in This room, a
half empty bottle of choral by his bed
side. The world said suicide, guilty con-
science, etcetera, but Nita and others
knew that he had not slept wink since
the discovery of the loss and was crazed
with misery. They have always main
tanned it was an accidental overdose.
But it nearly broke Mr.. Guthrie's heart,
and it was three years before Mia would
go into society in st. Louis again. They
went to Europe and staid there ever so
long.
What makes it seem probable that
he was unjustly suspected was that the
bank dismissed its cashier, Jacks most
intimate friend, man two or three
years older than himself, and devoted
admirer of Nita's. 1t was even sup
posed that she was engaged to him.
He had no wealthy friends to stand up
for him, and Jacks death made it APP
pear as though there had been guilt;
and yet such sum could not well have
been made away with except by the
knowledge or COLLISION of the cashier
himself, and though proofs were lack
ing, he was discharged the very day
poor Jack was buried. No one knows
whatever became of him afterward, and
people settled down into the belief that
this Mr.. Worden was the real thief. But
now comes the strangest part of it all.
The president of the bank was a widow.
er who, for two years, had been a sutton
of Nita's, a persistent sutton, despite her
marked coldness and aversion. -Four
months ago rumors began to float as to
the stability of the bank; then came a
run, panic; the bank had to close its
doors: immediate investigation into its
affairs was made, and then came the
discovery that the president had been a
heavy Spectator and had unquestion.
ably used the funds of the bank to cover
his losses. They found his body in
the river four days afterward, floating
down by the old barracks, where you
and had auch happy winter twenty
years ago. People say now that it was
President Percival himself all the time.