Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-08-10

i of bronzed and bearded faces There were many types of soldier thsre--men who had led brigades through the great war and gone back to the humble bars of the line officer at its close; men who had led fierce charges against the swarm. ing Indians in the rough old days of the first prairie railways; men who had won distinction and honorable mention in hard and trying frontier service; men who had their faults and foibles and weaknesses like other men and were ag- greSsive or compliant, strong willed or yielding. overbearirg or meek, as are | their brethren in other walks of life; men who were simple in heart, single in purpose and ambition, diverse in characteristics, but unanimous in one trait-no meanness could live among them-and Jerrold's heart sank within him, colder, lower, stonier than before, as he looked from face to face and cast up mentally the sum of each mans l character.
 His hospitality had been boundless, his bounty lavish; one and all they had eaten of his loaf and drunk of his cup, but was there among them one who could say of him, He is generous, and I stand his friend:" Was there one of them, one of theirs, for whom he had ever denied himself pleasure, great or small? He looked at poor old Gray, with his wrinkled. anxious face, and thought of his distress of mind Only few thousands-not three years pay-had the veteran scrapcd and saved and stored away for his little girl, whose heart was aching with its first cruel sorrow- his work, his undoing. his cursed, self ish greed for adulation, his reckless | love of love. The morrow's battle, if it came, might leave her orphaned and alone, and. poor as it was, a fathers pitying sympathy could not be her help with the coming year. Would Gray mourn him if the fortune of war made him the victim: Would any one of those averted faces look with pity and regret upon his stiffening form? Would there be any one on earth to whom his death would be sorrow but Nina: Would it even bc blow to her? She loved him wildly, he knew that, but would she werc she to dream the truth? He knew her nature we'll. He knew how quickly such burning love could turn to ficrccst hate when convinced that the object was utterly untrue. He had said nothing to I hNA NA hAI IAACNt@AaAliit AbAAAAAAts hN sAAA bA Alice, except to protest time and again that his attentions to her wcrc solely to win the good will of the colonel's fam fly and of tho colonel himself. so that he might he proof against the machina- tions of his foes. And yet had he not that very night on which he crossed the stream and let her peril her name and honor for ono s;ol,n int.rvicw-had kc
 
 a traito:o;,S lr.uwi,JEc iII:.w ing at his heart: In..; V,IN might. bvf,r' they parted at the .,luuvl'~ ,,O,lr. had he not lied to AlIc' X, INV ck. had h" not dr- nicd the story of his d,vutiun tu Miss BvaGlien. and wIs nnt his praCt!cc1 eye wa;,'h;Ig cal,, rlv the beautiful dark fac fir tlIc siGI that the news was wcicou.' ani ,o Ir,cipitatr the aN oval tr, nIbling ou hls lips that il was her he madly luv,tl-uot Nina: Though she hru tjrlly baolo him good night. though shv WAS unprupared for any such aAu";lnc,mrmt, hc well knew that Alice Rruwick's 's heart fluttcrcd at the carncstnt=>S uf his manner. and that he had indicated far more than he had said.
 Fear, not love. had drawn him to Nina Beauhicn that night, and hope had ccntcrrd on her morr beautiful rival when the discoveries of the night involved him i'll the first trembling symptoms uf the downfall tn come.
 And he was tu have spent the morning with her, the woman to whom he had lied in word. while she to whom he had } lied ill word and dCcd was going from him, not Ia return until the german,
 and even then he planned trcachery.
 He meant to lead with Alice Rcnwick and claim that it must be with the colo nel's daughter because the ladies of the garrison were the givcrS. Then he , knew Nina would not come at all and
 possibly might quarrel with him on that ground. What could have been an , easier solution of his trOublous prcdica- , ment: She would break their secret en-
 gagemcnt; he would refuse all reconcili- ; ation and be free to devote himself to ! Alice. But all these grave complica- tions had arisen. Alice would not come. , Nina wrote demanding that he should ! lead with her and that he should meet r her at St. Crnix. and then came the crash He owed his safety to her self sacrifice and now must give up all hope s of Alice Renwick. He had accepted the l announcement of their engagement He r could not do less after all that had hap pened and the painful scene at their parting. And yet would it not be a
 blessing to her if he were killed? Even now in his self abncgation and misery he did not fully rCaliZ" how mean he
 was-hOw mCan he med tu others. : He resented in his heart what Sloat had {. said of him but the day before, little caring whether he heard il or not It would be a mercy tn that poor girl if
 Jerrold were killed. He will break her U heart with neglect ur drive her mad with jealousy inside of a year. But E the regiment seemed to agree with Sloat.
 And so in all that little band of com radcs he could call no man friend. One after another he looked upon the uncon- i scious faces, cold and avcrted in the ob- t livion of sleep, but not moro cold, not more distrustful, than when he had l vainly sought among them one relenting t glance in the early moonlight that bat - tlc eve in bivouac. He throw his arms k upward, shook his head, with hopeless n gesture then buried his face in the :, sleeves of his rough campaign overcoat , HUH t4ItAA '- Early in the morning, an hour beforC d daybreak, the shivering outpost, crouch $ ing in hollow to the southward, catcf
 sight of two dim figures shooting sud d denly up over n distant ridge-horse It men, they know at a glance-and thess e two come loping down the moonlit trai d over which two nights before hac }, marched the calvary speeding to tn, ,,,s el,.. l. ment itself must be on the move. OlC ' arn txx-n af fhn ,Nirl-nt anf