The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-12-10

| wnen cnance brought MIN near nelen
Daunton. She noted with jealous mis-
cry the appealing look in Helen's eyes
when once they were for an instant left
to themselves. She could have sworn
she saw little scrap of paper handed
Ormsby at that moment and quickly
slowed in his waistcoat pocket. But the
rest of the evening it was Leale who
devoted himself to Helen and Leale
who escorted her home, and this fact
Ellis saw was something that seemed to
give Ormsby no concern whatever. Had
she not been blinded by her suspicious
she would have seen that poor Jack had
only one real source of trouble that
night, and that was her own determined
avoidance of him.
Wheels within wheels were whirring
in the garrison, and Ellis Farrar was
perplexed and worried more than she
could say. Even placid, garrulous Aunt
Lucretia was involved in the recent
complications, for within the past three
days Major Wayne had been on no less
than three occasions in close and con-
fidential talk with Mrs. Farrar, talk
| tudU Ou Ol1c lolU lu0 S0uGl0
invalid in tears and from which she had
gone to her room and was found there
on her knees by Ellis half an hour lat
er. Explanation was denied her at the
time.
''Not now, Ellis, DEAR" was the
pleading answer. II cannot talk to-
night. Later-after Christmas-I will
tell you all about it, And with this
the girl had perforce been content. Yet
here again she mourned because while
refusing to tell her own daughter the
reason Of her tears and agitation Mrs.
Farrar had welcomed Helen to her room
and found solace and comfort In her
society.
This lovely, placid, moonlit night,
as they came away from DR.. Gray's,
old Fenton was plainly disappointed
and Lucretia as plainly disturbed when
Mrs. Farrar quietly and possessively
took the majors arm and led him, rath-
er than leaned upon his strength, Oh the
homeward way. Ellis, escorted by Mr..
Martin-anything to get away from
Ormsby this night-had hurried home
ward and then to her room and out of
sight, yet noted how long her mother
detained the dreamy major at the gate,
while Leale and Helen Daunton con-
versed in the little parlor. There had
been gathering at the Amorys that
same evening, little dinner party, as
Mrs. Amory expressed it, Sin honor of
those who are engaged and those who
ought to be-" and pretty Nell Willetts,
captains daughter, and young Alton
of K troop were the first named, and
bewitching Kitty and Willy Farrar, one
couple, at least, included in the second.
Mrs. AmOry was a charming hostess
She was Of all old Kentucky family, had
! wealth and beauty to add to her charms
and had been wooed and won by her
dashing husband long years before,
when he was a boy lieutenant doing
Kuklux duty in the distant south. She
declared Will was dark eyed edition
of just what her Frank was in the early
seventies and that Kitty Ormsby was
''too like I was 20 yuhs ago TO- any
thing" And Mrs. Amory was so loyal
a Kentuckian as never to forget even
the sweet, soft dialect Of the blue grass
country she SO fondly loved. Ellis, to
Mrs. Amory's relief, had begged off the
dinner, saying she felt she ought not to
be away from her mothers side just
now, and frankly explaining to Mrs.
Amory the apprehensions they all felt
on that mothers account, especially at
this trying time, SO near the anniver-
sary of the colonel's death.
With all the worldly goods with which
she had endowed her husband 20 years
gone by, pretty Mrs. Amory couldn't
quarters and her dining room would on
ly hold ten; so, as Ellis wasn't especial
ly interested in any man at the post
despite the attentions paid her by Mar
tin, Jessup and other available fellows,
Mrs. Amory wisely decided her to be
deeply interested in somebody far away
and knew the man the moment Ormsby
came. So Ormsby and Ellis as has been
said, went to whist and came away dis
satisfied and unhappy, and Will and
| Kitty went to dinner and dance at
Amory's and had thrilling tiff, as a
result of which she refused to ask him
in when he took her home, even though
Aunt Lucretia, hoping it was Wayne
beamed upon them, though it was after
midnight, from the doorway, and the
colonel and Brother Jack, looming up
through a cloud of cigar smoke, shouted
to the suffering subaltern to come in.
Wrathful and stung to the quick by Kit
tvs coquetry, Farrar turned indignant
~ away and sought his own quarters.
The lights were still burning in the par
lor, and he felt sure Leale and Mrs.
Daunton were there and he was too
Unified to care to see them. A dim
light was burning in his mothers room,
and he believed her to have retired ear
lier and so made it an excuse not to go
for her good night kiss and blessing.
The door opened just as he was hurry
ing by and Wayne came forth into the
clear moonlight, and the boy wondered
that he should be there, instead of at