The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-04-20
The Incompetent Oath.
By MARTHA MOULJ0OH WILLIAMS.
copyright, 1896, by the Authorl
Continued.

Continued.
He wrote mis- name slowly, WITH svin,
old fashioned precision. To Anne,
watching, the pen seemed to crawl
through an infinitely long space. She
wanted to cry QUITO say that she |
could not, would not, must not, do tits ,
thing. But a great dumbness fell upon !
her. The pen somehow crept into her
hand Before she fairly realized it
"Anne Powell' was staring at her in
clear black letters from blue white
page, burning, blistoring, deep into her
soul.
Powell blood was game. Anne turned
steadily away. Her hands dropped duly
either side. Half way to the door she
reeled, fell, lay white and breathless in
her fathers arms
She came out Of her faint to find her
self stretched ON the hard, narrow sofa
of the inner office. Her father was
chatting her hands, a strange doctor fore
ing what seemed liquid fire between her
lips, and afar in one corner tall man
in q colonel's uniform looking at the
group with anxious eyes
At sight of him Anne sat up Take
me outside. 1t is smothering here" she
painted, trying to stand mp.
81 will, dear. It's n close day, but
wait till get the buggy around to the
steps," Major Powell said as he went
anxiously away. The doctor likewise
vanished Anne was alone with the man
whose long gaze more than even the
stress of grief had brought her to this
pass
He came toward her, but stopped
yard away to say:
as there nothing l can do for you,
Miss Powell?''
Anne hid herself in the depths of her
sunbonnet before she answered, "Noth-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS see about the pass.
want to get home without fail.
Colonel Grice disappeared. In three
minutes he came back, laid folded pa
per in her hands, and said, smiling
family: There is the first fruit of 10y
atty, Miss Powell. A special safe con-
duct that will pass the bearer through
any Federal picket line. "
Anne flung back her bonnet, sprang
upright, faced him with flashing eyes,
cried out as she threw the paper at his
feet: 81 am not loyal. hate the whole"
then paling to the lips, "but-but
have sworn-I NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. for
give my rudeness-sir, | know | ought
to-thank you. You meant to be kind.
With that she bent humbly, picked
up the crumpled pass and walked silent
ly toward the door With her hand on
the knob, she turned to find Colonel
Grice at her elbow, his face even more
disturbed than her own. His pallid fin
gers fell hard over her slim brown ones
as he said very low;
Promise, please, not to hate me.
That was the last thing about the day
that Anne remembered clearly. Dream
lily she knew afterward that a sense of
slipping away into black unknown
depths came over her; that she came
out of them week later to find herself
safe at home, with Caroline lamenting
in her ear that it had not been her lot
to go take the oath, faint twice and be
! picked up by the handsome Yankee
colonel He was certainly smitten. That
, was Caroline deliberate Judgment, for
a had he not sent an orderly with escort
every day since to find out Anne's state
of health? More had he not put at the
family DOCTORS disposal all the riches
2 of the army medicine chest?
"And it," said Miss Caroline, she
, does as much for Anne, what wouldn't
he have done if he had just got sight Of
r me?"
5 For that problem Anne had no ready
answer. Indeed she grew so white and
wild eyed at Carolines chatter that hel
8 mother strenuously forbade further men
/ ton of anything that had led up t
d Anne's illness. Inevitably, though, TIT
). girl heard often of Colonel Grice, for il
!. this land of uncertainty all the talk wa
@ of war. Vaguely, with grotesque distor
h tions, all the titanic happenings of tn,
r time sifted through breaks in the line
!, to north or south. 1t turned out, aftel
@ ALL that enforced loyalty had not don,
il much for communication, though Ger
d tainly it fostered trade Newspaper
J. were still contraband of war, even thos,
SUPERFICIAL sheets which saw in Hooker
recoil from the Wilderness "a strategic
triumph of Federal arms. " The soutl
II bound train brought such journals to thu
n folk at headquarters The rest fed OIL
Is rumors, save when now and then SOM
a venturous trader, coming back from
10 Louisville or Cincinnati, struggled I
& news sheet through in ambush of tn
l. breast pocket. If he dared further t.
|. pass it through the picket line, it wa
le literally read to pieces-passed from
,r house to house with the best speed O
I. horse and man.
l. And everywhere q crowd listened t.
its reading, sometimes with sobs, often
err with set teeth and eyes that flashed de
faint denial to each prophecy of Fedora
success, immediate or ultimate. Hope
full faith in their cause, their leaders
y was to these simple souls religion
io If to wise grayheads how much NOR
to poor Annel As spring went on t.
summer she sat through the long days
her heart riotous with impotence 70
rs the coming in of her own. She choke'
sometimes at the thought that she ha,
forfeited her right to welcome them
Enforced though it was, she felt bount
by the oath until the Confederacy's tri
umph should make it null and void
Only thus could her soul be freed iron
this prison of her own building. 1t wa
pitiful to see her put aside the knitting
the spinning "for jack" to hear he
say, with catch in her breath. "Moth
er-give me your work. cannot d
mine any more. Jack is-my enemy bu
mayhe Won will send''
eyes, yes, daughter, never feal
Mother knows what you want and wi
do it,, Mrs, Powell said soothingly a
she took out of her daughters sight tn
| warm home wrought garments who's
i every fiber enmeshed loving thought G