Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-02

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| AT S4RYty at all, for they had been
t6TTNG treated to the same
| NG NIfgtN thing every evening for
| EfMSa q week and ought to
-StkE have grown used to it.
Boom! crack! bang
| sizz-z-o-o-p,!
The women jammed their fingers in their
ears and declared it was getting uncomfortable.
All but one. The exception was the hostess
q woman with a sweet, young-looking face,
crowned by snow-white hair. She smiled as
she gently swung the hammock at her side and
said, 81 enjoy it."
The women stared their amazement. II
would have been breath wasted to express it in
words, because nothing could be heard above
the series of ear-splitting explosions which
came just then.
Crack crack crack! Thunder and Mars
Jupiter Pluvius and Popocatapectel! The very
heavens seemed rent with the defamation.
II believe 1t will drive me crazy. Can't we
get away from it? How can you say you en-
joyed it?" And a pretty, shrinking girl crept
to Mrs. Delmar's side and hid her face in the
lady's white gown.
They were quite a party, the guests of Maj.
and Mrs. Delmar and their niece, Mrs. Turner
in their beautiful country seat at Graceland,
gated on the lawn. 1t was just in the edge of
| night. The red and yellow of the sunset had
not quite faded away, but its glory paled to in
significance beside the perfectly wonderful py-
rotechnic display of Fourth Of July fireworks,
which the children of the neighborhood were
ENJOYING under the management Of the Delmar
gardener. Maj. Delmar was a fireworks
fend." He was indefaugable in his efforts to
secure the newest pieces and the loudest noise
making inventions, and for week before the
Fourth the explosive toys made life burden
to the lover Of quiet who happened to be within
the country were invited. Strange to relate.
very few people knew why the handsome, bluff
old military gentleman and his beautiful wife
were SO devoted to Fourth of July" demon
stration, since they had no children Of their
own to enjoy it.
"Some people might think that Aunt Grace
would have no love for Independence day. for
it was on this day, nineteen years ago, that che
surrendered her Independence and went over to
the enemy" remarked Mrs. Turner.
"No, by Jove!' came from the hammock.
''She captured the enemy foot, horse and
dragons, spiked all the guns and leveled all the
defenses and he surrendered without condi-
ton"
"Suppose you tell us about it. uncle. 1t is
quite romantic, think, and I ought to know,
for had hand in the denouement.'
"Ten it yourself, my girl. I'm most too old
to spin love stories"
"But this is your own, uncle, and I'm sure
you do not regret it."
Indeed, DON'T" he replied. as he reached
his brawny hand from the depths of the ham,
mock to lay it on the firm white one still sway
ing him to and fro. They have been nineteen
beautiful years. he continued musingly, as he
pulled himself to a sitting position and gazed
out over the hills where the sun had gone down.
nineteen beautiful years; we are not SO young
as we once were. lass. The sun has crossed the
line, but it will shine on our path clear to the
foot Of the hill"
The major was genial and jolly, rather bluff
and not much given to sentiment, but his
alteration for his wife, who was nearly twenty
years his junior, was something sublime. I'm
petuous and imperious to his fellow-men, to
her he was all gentleness and submission.
The first exuberance of the evening jollifica-
ton had subsidized and the young girl was
listening intently to the majors half aside to
his wife.
Tell us about it, please, major" she pleaded.
"There isn't much to tel, ;" said the ma or.
at Is like all cases where true love doesn't run
smooth. In ours the love was all right but
our luck seemed to be all wrong. My wife had
the misfortune to be left an orphan and with
out a relation in the world. In the spring of
1864 was furloughed because Of serious illness
and went to my old home in Boston to visit my
parents after an absence Of sixteen years on the
frontier, three Of them in the volunteer service.
I met Grace at the house Of a friend Of my
mothers, where she was living goyerness.
and for the first time in my thirty five years of
life fell in love. 1 surrendered completely to q
twenty year-old golden-hsired girl, after hav-
ing won a majors straps for valor in the service
against the hostlles. When 1 returned to the
front I left my heart in Grace keeping, and
she never returned the property! Disaster and
trials kept us apart for eight years. but We
finally got things rounded up and branded in
proper shape" The major stopped and mopped
&c Lta htnfa IL,
broke in Indignantly:
''Now, isn't that exactly like a man? Aunt
Grace, you will have to straighten the story
out, for uncle has left off just where the inter-
est begins"
sits too deuced hot to sentimentalize," re-
turned the major grufdy, "and-beside, / don't
like to think of the years that came in between.
They made an old man Of me and changed
Grace's golden hair to snow white"
'They were sad years, all Of them, in one
sense" said Mrs. Delmar, but perhaps it was
the discipline necessary to bend two imperious
wills and chasten two rather unsubmissive
hearts,"
''You will tell us about it?" insisted the party
in chorus as Mrs. Delmar paused.
"Since you really care to hear it. yes," but
again Mrs. Delmar paused and a shadow Of pain
seemed to sweep over her face. ''Our trials
began almost at once on the return of the major
| to duty. The mails were very irregular and
the Indians extremely hostile: so that Mr.. Del
mars parents and myself were suffering in
tensely most Of the time. Early in 65, after
not having had q word for eight weeks. came a
letter from Fort Riley in q strange hand. Major
Delmar had been shot in the arm by poisoned
arrow, and had been very i'll, but was getting
better. The letter was four weeks old. With
aching hearts we waited for later tidings. To
go to him during those turbulent times was i'm
possible.
"a week after the receipt of that letter Major
Delmar's father died suddenly Of heart failure,
and two weeks later his wife was laid in the
grave beside him. A sister whom had never
seen till then was hastily summoned from her
home in Chicago and though too late to see her
father, closed her mothers ewes. She settled
up the estate, which was quite large, and in
sisted that l accompany her to her home in
Chicago, to which she was obliged to return at
once because of her infant daughter. Just as /
had made up my mind to accept the home
offered me another mopth-old letter arrived
telling me that Major Delmar had wandered
away on the plains in his delirium and per-
ished. When his body was found it was badly
decomposed. but they identified it by the cloth
ing and had buried him with military honors in
the fort cemetery.
1.-THE shock following 90 fast upon the other
tragic events almost dethroned reason. felt
o. though I wanted to get just as far away
from everything that reminded me Of my dead
love a. possible. An opportunity offered for
| me to 60 abroad with an invalid lady and de-