The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1897-12-21
An Army .Coquette.

In civil life, the good old days were
Ut time not nearer than 80 years
apast; but in the service, sun that
rose ten years ago shone on a good
old day. There are railroads now. and
hig garrisons near towns, and there are
no indians Gas good old soldiers, I'M
dcrstood Indians), and gambling is in
dsercdit, and colonels whose orders
are obscured by liquor fumes have de-
creased 0S per cent, and there are
houses with every Improvement in
stead of wall-tcnts and adobe huts,
and the IN have as many rights as
women in - oming, and the officers
have fresh oysters and don't pay dol
lar q bottle for beer, and their wives
have more interesting subjects to con-
slider than each others most sacredly
private business-w wherefore there is
no longer war in time Of peace. Never
theless, 10, 10, 20 years ago-when all
these things were not-was the good
old time before the service had begun
to 90 TO the particular bow-wows.
This that ann going to tell happened
in the good old days. 1t could not very
well happen now. because, as | say,
things have changed. At the time Bet
ty Mandeville's father was 10 command
at Apache and Betty was engaged TO
be married TO an unusually fine fellow,
whose name is not part of the story
He was a second lieutenant and he was
in love. with all the beautiful disregard
of the facts of life that is characteristic
of the enamored state.
OF course the post knew of the en-
gagement before either of the two
most interested parties did. This was
because this happened in the good old
days. For the same reason-though 1T
can occur sometimes even now-opin-
ions on the match flew thick and fast
and obscured the sky of charity. They
said that the. second lieutenant was
making n fool of himself, which was
the only unlSir remark he fell heir to.
But Betty Jared worse. She came of
bad strain. There were things in the
histories of both - narents that every
one knew and no one was supposed 10
know Her fathey vAs English and had
been a jockey. He was the son of a
concert-hall singer and a man whose
only nobility was his birth.
Miss Vaudeville, who was more
Mexican than. Spanish-bore a good
Castilian name which covered a multi
tude of sins.
There were any number of Mande-
Vile children younger than Betty, and
all Enthusiastically fayoring their
swarthy mother. Ther were so dirty
that they were disgrace to the post.
But Betty was tidy-as 10 dress-and
was blonde; fluffy, curlily blonde.
with fine skin and innocent blue eyes
and a rosebud mouth. 1t was said. she
looked like an English professional
beauty; but there was no one to recog-
nize the startling likeness to the con-
cert-hall grandmother. She had taste
for laces. and hosiery, and high-heeied
slippers, that may have been either a
SPANISH or theatrical Inheritance. And
she was beautiful beyond a question.
with beauty that was only skin
deep.
After she had promised to marry the
second lieutenant, Betty went down to
Lowell to visit her aunt, who was her
mothers sister aud was the wife of
Capt. Locke. Betty knew that she
would enjoy herself more if the engage
ment were kept secret. She could
keep it quiet, because it was in the
good old days and news travelled slowly
and distances were great
On the second day of her stay her
aunt took her to stay over night with
Senior Franquelo in Tucson. Which
was the beginning.
The Franquelo family was large, and
most of it dwelt in the one horse-an
adobe with the external whitewash
broken off III oddly-shaped pieces, and
built as all adobes were built in the
good old days-one story around a
courtyard. There was nothing in the
courtyard but chickens and ollas-
broken and otherwise-fo the soil Of
Tucson is not fertile. Outside, where
the narrow doorway faced upon the
street, hardly less white under the
burning sun than the whitened walls
that lined il, hooking bird cage OF