The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-01-15

the only daughter of Col. Ross, mother
less, and betrothed to one Lieut.. Haw-
thorne, who had loved her since they
had been babies making mud-pies to-
gether on the sun-blasted parade ground
of Camp Thomas She broke her en-
gagement, and she broke young Haw-
thorne's heart; but her own turn was
to come.
In November, giving way ungracious-
ly enough to Anna Trafford's pleadings,
Charming granted her permission to
Join him at the railroad town. She was
very poor. Generally she was consid
crate and self-sacrifcing. Now she
clamored, and would not be quieted I'M
til mortgage was raised on the
wretched little house that was all III
the world her mother and crippled sis
ter owned. She bought her ticket
with the money, and ten days after the
receipt of Channing's letter she was at
the meeting place-alone.
She spent day and two nights in
the mean little depot hotel, very nearly
out of her mind with loneliness, fright,
Then Channing's mother arrived, and
an officer met them with an ambulance.
Charming was dying of a fever, the
mother told her. The doctor had tele-
graphed for her, without her sons
knowledge, the day after the girl had
left the village. Then Anna re-
preached herself for her suspicious
with unreasoning bitterness.
The drive 10 the post took two days.
1t was horrible experience for the Of
ficer. The road stretched on, on, on,
across desert and bad lands, where
even the greasewood and mesquite was
burned by the terrible sun. The old
woman sank from the dust and the
heat into an almost senseless state.
The girl, being young and strong and
alive, fought with the strangling dust,
gasped, twisted her small hands, and
bit her lips in perfectly silent strug-
gle. Sometimes, as the lieutenant sat
opposite them, he wished that they
could cry or make sound.
The beautiful daughter of Col. Ross
was standing by Channing's bed alone.
when the doctor led the mother and her
young companion in. The lieutenanthad
been dead 90 minutes. The dark-eyed
woman did not turn, she had forgotten
everything in all the world, save only
Channing's face. When the southern
girl dropped down at the bedside and
screamed for her husband, she started.
SIS the poor thing crazy?" she asked,
DULY, of Mrs. Claiming.
/. "No. But she was not married to
him. Only she was to have been mar
ried at Santa Maria. two or three days
ago; forget when. He sent for her."
THAT can't be true, because am his
wife"
Mrs. Charming caught at the bedpost
with her shriveled old hand. "Non-
sense!" she said
"Indeed, it is true. Aren't you his
mother?" She put her arm tenderlv
about the bent shoulders. 81 thought
you were. You look like him. He and
were married last night at midnight.
when they told us he was going to die"
"Anna! Come away. Anna! You've
no right there. Get up. This girls his
wife. He didn't love you. He married
her. He married her-last night"
It was cruel. but Mrs. Charming had
gone mad.
For five years afterward Col. Ross
cared for the insane mother of his
daughters husband-even when his
daughter was dead.
But until Charming was buried in the
graveyard on the hill. where the coyotes
dug up the mounds at night, and the
prairie dogs barked shrilly, and the
snakes glided along the dry, baked
earth into their holes-until he was
buried there the two women stayed by
her. Their trust in the dead man never
faltered. The girl believed he had been
ensnared on his death-bed; the wife.
that he had never loved the childish.
pretty Virginian. Yet neither-out Of
pity-spoke her convictions.
Watching over his mother they sat in
the room where he had died, and lis
tened to the thud of the soldiers feet
as they marched by outside, following
the young officers fag-covered coffin.
Then there was long, long silence.
They were wide apart-the wife with
her beautiful head in her hands; the
girl, looking straight at the wall; the
old woman muttering and scratching at
her gown with her crooked fingers.
At last came the sound of far-oIf
volley of musketry. The girl jumped
up. whats that?"
"The firing over his grave"
In moment it came again. The girl
stood swaying. The wife sat with her
head still bowed It was no new sound
to her.
A pause-then the last volIey. The
girl fell. and the woman, lifting her
head. stared stupidity at the pretty. dead
face. at the fixed. childish eyes, that
still looked hurt; while the mother
muttered in the corner and taps shrilled
from the bugle over the grave of the
man they had. loved.-San Francisco
Argonaut.