Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-05-18

about dead beat and his daughter had
lailen last asleep on his arm."
There was silence as Stirling ceased
speaking, and, before l asked what
became OF the girl, tall military look
ing man, with dropping iron grey
moustache, advanced towards us, whom
Leyden and Stirling addressed as Hol-
Drook. He was introduced to me, and
l must confess that l have seen much
handsomer men in my day, but there
was an lndefinable something about
holbrook which seemed to fascinate
all those he as brought into contact
with. Though grave there was moth
Ing morose in his demeanor; he was
quiet without giving you the idea of
melancholy, and IN. spite of the fact
that In the dreadful lays of '57 when
face to face with the foe he had never
been known to give quarter, he had a
gentle If somewhat distant courtesy
towards natives which many of us
might have taken pattern by. But the
chlef charm to my mind in encounter
ing Colonel Holbrook was his straight
forward honest eyes, the sort of eyes
which you felt would never finch at
any danger or swerve a hairs breadth
from the path of honor. For the rest,
the Colonel, owing to his erect bear
ing, and 1.-THE, muscular figure, did not
look over forty years of age, whereas
he was the wrong side of fifty.
The Colonel told us presently he had
taken a small furnished bungalow on
the Breach Candy road near the Vel
lard, as he was expecting his daughter
out by the "Malta, which was due in
n couple of days. Here was news in
deed, for to Anglo-Indian society the
arrival of a young unmarried English
girl is as welcome as rain in the desert.
81 suppose you have not seen Miss
Holbrook since she was quite child?"
remarked Stirling.
'No, the last time L saw her WAS
eleven years ago, when | had my long
furlough and | went home to arrange
about her education. BY Jove, she
must be almost out of her teens now.
| wonder whether / shall know her
when | meet her."
Here is one of the drawbacks to life
in India; you cannot bring up your
children there after they are five or
six years of age, and consequently the
country can never become a colony.
There Is something pathetic when we
recall the Colonel having at the risk of
his life saved that of his child being
about TO meet the latter as a compar
ative stranger. Did the blooming
young lady, so tall that even the Col
onel scarcely needed to stoop to give
the paternal greeting, remember the
day when, almost blinded by horror
and blood, the same father who was
somewhat shyly gazing at her, had,
after rescuing her from terrible fate,
borne her in his arms over a long and
painful march to rest and safety? L
am afraid Isabel Holbrook's memory
did not go so far back; she was
charmed to see her father, who locked
every inch soldier; delighted with
the new sight around her, but the
mutiny happened n long time ago,
and about which the Colonel
never opened his lips. L am
therefore not blaming Isabel for not
recollecting what she owed-how many
of us do so?-but she soon came to
know her father, whereas standing on
tho "Malta's" quarter deck she was
Just making his acquaintance.
All, she was bright, beautiful crea-
ture when she arrived to gladden. the
Colonels home like n sunbeam, for
alas so short period. | Ike to think
of those happy days, andit was pleas
ure to watch the fair young girl by
her pretty ways coaxing back the old
smile which had been so long missed
from the soldiers face. You see, as |
grow older, life appears to have more
of shadows about it than formerly, and
l an tempted to linger in the sunny
spots as / come across them.
During the hot season Colonel Hol-
brook managed to escape for few
days to the little hill sta ion of Math-
eran, where Isabel had her first en-
counter with the deadly cobra, and was
surprised to see how quickly her father
dispatched the reptile with his riding
whip. When the monsoon burst about
the end of MAY, the Colonel and his
daughter moved up to POOna, mill
tary station at the top OF the Bhore
Ghaut, hundred miles or so from
Bombay and a very fayorlte resort in
the rainy season, as the hills surround
ing 1t seem to draw away the heavy
rains for the most part leaving Poona
comparatively dry and cool. Every
one is aware what delightful place
Poona is in the monsoon, but L wish
with all my heart Isabel Holbrook had
never gone there, and then perhaps
these pages would never have been
written.
I forget where Isabel first met Stan
ton Jarvis, the manager for the great
Parsee banking firm Dhuramjee, Jee-
ieebhoy and Jehangeer; probably at
some s'burra khana," dinner partJ J.
at any rate no sooner had he made his
annearance on the scene than her
hiGhness. Miss HoIbrook, had no eyes
for anyone else. Poor Stirling, who l
fancy in his deliberate Scotch manner
had been letting himself down rather
than falling in loving with the Coloners
dauphter, found himself left suddenly
ont IN the cold, while your humble
servant. who had only ventured to
worsbin the star from a distance, be
came no more to her that the dirt
which her Arab horse Subsdar kicked
mn with his heels. Her father even
fdnnd himself beginning, as it is called,
to ssnlay second fiddle" he who had
saved her life and loved and waited Tor
nor in solitude for eleven years was no
longer first, but came alter one only
known n week. Is not this always so?
We rear and tend our flowers, guard
inc them through many a cold winter
and inst ss they reach perfection they
are transplanted bv some one who can
merely give promises as against our
nerformances, and we have to watch
them bloom elsewhere. Bloom did L
saw? Do they not sometimes fade?
But pshaw, because l have seen one
miserable marriage 1 am growing like
Hamlet, trying to set right world out
of foint and forgetting that both Stir
ling and myself in after years took two
dancbters from their parents root
without the slightest compunctIon.
n must be admitted that Stan'o
Jarvis was a handsome fellow; he rode
we'll. which ought to have been point
IN his favor with the Colonel, who ad-
~ n,irad good horsemanship, and yet al
tb .ugh there had never been a whisper
ao,o;nst the character of MIR. jarvis,