The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1897-01-21
! AN ARMY COQUETTE.
~ ewEnDonsn ovERrox.

Ut timo not nearer than so years
apast; but in the service, a sun that
rosa ten years ago shone on q good
old day. There are railroads now, and
big garrisons near towns, and there are
no Indians (as good old soldiers, I'M
derstOod Indians), and gambling is in
disoredit, and colonels whose orders
are obscured by liquor fumes have de-
Creased SO per cent, and there are
houses with every improvement in
stead Of wall-tents and adobe huts.
and the men have as many rights as
women in Wyoming, and the officers
have fresh oysters and don't pay dol
lar bottle for beer, and their wives
have more interesting subjects to con-
elder than each Others most sacredly
private business--wherefor there is
+ no longer war In time of peace. Never
theless, 10, is, 20 years ago--when all
these thirgs were not--was the good
old time before the service had begun
to go 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 1 say,
things have changed. At the time Bet
ty Mandeville's father was in 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 second lieutenant and he was
in love, with all the beautiful disregard
of the facts of life that is characteristic
of the enamored state.
~. kn lyr nf f1,a nn.
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 it
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 fool of himself. which was
the only unkind remark he fell heir to.
But Betty Jared worse. She came of
q bad strain. There were things in the
histories of both her parents that every
one knew and no one was supposed TO
know. Her father was English and had
been a jockey. He was the son of
concert-hall singer and man whose
only nobility was his birth.
Miss Vaudeville, who was more
Mexican than Spanish--bore a good
Castilian name which covered multi
tude of sins.
There were any number of Mande-
vile children younger than Betty. and
all Enthusiastically favoring their
swarthy mother. They were so dirty
that they were disgrace to the post
But Betty was tidy--as to dress-and
was blonde; fluffy, curlily blonde.
with fine skin and innocent blue eyes
end 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 n taste
for laces, and hosiery, and high-heeled
slippers, that may have been either a.
Spanish or theatrical inheritance. And
she was beautiful beyond 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 and 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 house-an
adobe with the external whitewash
broken off in oddly-shaped pieces, and
built as all adobes were built in the
good old days--one story around
courtyard. There was nothing, in the
courtyard but chickens and ollas--
broken and otherwise-for 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 it, mocking-bird cage OF
willow hung against the house, with a
red chile stuck between it's bars. II
was the first time Betty had been under
the ancestral roof.
Besides her grandmother, who was
more unpleasant than the aunts, there
were many cousins, male and female
I Of these, two-second cousins-were IN
love. They were Carlos and Ines. In
less than ten minutes Carlos had de-
serted black-browed Ines and was Ian
gushing at Betty with his two soft eyes
Ines was openly wretched, Carlos open
ly infatuated, Betty openly flirting
But Carlos did not know that.
Betty and her aunt went back u
, Lowell the next day, and the same even
ing Carlos rode over to the post to set
her. 81
There were six officers calling OF
Miss Vaudeville, SO Carlos sat apar'
and sulked; but he outstayed them all
When they had gone. after suPper o.
canned oyster stew and tamales. h