The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-02-11

~ - ~ OSA~SNS, w ASAA 49, 4
she wept and said all manner of fool
ish things, until Capt. Lytton came
upon them and took her home.
Very soon after this the lieutenant
went on to visit his mother. She was |,
Virginian, Of the conventional poor
but proud order; and she lived on
what had once been the kitchen gar
den of the family estate. Quite as
often as not she was on the point of
hunger, when there was no demand for
the needlework of her quivering old
fingers. Her son did not contribute to
her support All of my beggarly pay,
and more, too, goes to keep up appear
ances. My regiment is great on esprit
de corps. I'd like awfully well to help
you, mother, but I must hold up my
end of the row. I am Claiming"
And she loved him all the better.
While he was with her in the sum
mer of '85, through sheer lack of ex-
citement he became enamored of a
certain Anna Trafford. He asked her
to marry him-quite the last thing he
would have expected himself to do
and she, being completely fascinated,
consented without even a decent
amount of hesitation. It was arranged
| that in the late fall she should join
| Charming at the town nearest his post,
and there be married.
In September the unhappy Mrs. Nor
ton, having gone hopelessly away to
another garrison, the lieutenant re-
Joined his regiment.
In November, giving way ungracious-
~ enough to Anna Trafford's plead
ings, Charming granted her permission
to join him at tn railroad town. She
was very poor. Generally she was con-
siderate and self-sacridcing. Now she
clamored, and would not be quieted
until a mortgage was raised on the
Wretched little house that was all in
the world her mother and crippled sis
I ter owned. She bought her ticket with
the money, and ten days after the re-
ceipt of Channing's letter she was at
the meeting place alone.
l She spent day and two nights in
the mean little depot hotel, very near
ly out of her mind with loneliness,
fright, and at last an acknowledged
distrust. Then Channing's mother ar
rived, and an officer met them with
an ambulance.
a fever, the mother told her. The doc
tor had telegraphed for her, without
her sons knowledge, the day after the
girl had left the village. Then Anna
reproached herself for her suspicious
with unreasoning bitterness.
The drive to the post took two days.
It was a horrible experience for the
officer. The road stretched on, on and
on, across desert and bad lands, where
even the greasewood and mesquite
: were burned by the terrible sun. The
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 leuten-
ant had been dead twenty minutes
The dark-eyed woman did not turn
she had forgotten everything in all
3 the world save only Channing's face
When the southern girl dropped down
s at the bedside and screamed for hel
husband, she started.
els the poor thing crazy?" she asked
t duly of Mrs. Charming.
S "No. But she was not married tt
y him. Only she was to have been mar
ried at Santa Maria two or three day!
ago; forget when. He sent for her.
S 'That can't be true, because I an
s his wife,"
Mrs. Charming caught at the bedpos
{. with her shriveled old hand. "Non
sense!' she said.
Indeed, it is true. Aren't you hi
mother?" She put her arm tenderl,
about the. bent shoulders. "I though
you were. You look like him. He an
I were married last night at midnight
, when they told us he was going to die.
A anna! Come away, Anna! You'v
no right there. Get up. This girls hi
! wife. He didn't love you. He marie
A her. He married her-last night
y It was cruel, but Mrs. Charming ha
gone mad
For five years afterward COL Ros
cared for the insane mother of hi
daughters 'husband-eyen when hi
daughter was dead.
But until Charming was buried
the graveyard on the hill, where tn
coyotes dug up the mounds at nigh
= and the prairie-dogs barked shrill.
~ and the snakes glided along the dr.,
- baked earth into their holes-until b
=. ~ was buried there, the two women stat
~ ~ by her Their trust in the dead ma
- never faltered. The girl believed h
~ had been ensnared on his death-bet
the wife that he had never loved tt
:. childish, pretty Virginian. Yet neitht
,. out of pity-spoke her convictions.
Watching over his mother, they $;
~ in the room where he had died, an
- listened to the thud of the soldier
a. feet as they marched by outside, 70
~ lowing the young officers flag-covere
- coffin. Then there was long, lor
- silence. They were wide apart-tl
81 wife, with her beautiful head in b
hands; the girl, looking straight
), the wall; the old woman, mutteri1
nd and scratching at her gown with b
/, crooked fingers