Arizona republican., 1898-03-23
CHAPTER XII.

When Florence regained strength enough to move she crept slowly back to her little parior, where the beacon lights that were to summon her hus- band were still faithfully, fruitlessly burning. She looked in at the dining room and its preparation for cheer and welcome, and turned away with shiver of disgust, and then, with a moan Of pathetic misery, threw herself into an armchair and tried to think. What should she do? What could she do? Her love for Randy was so fond, so glowing, that she had gifted him with the quail ties of god, leaning upon him in every thing, trusting him in everything, rely ing upon his word as though it were a pledge on high: and yet within these few hours he had, all unasked, given her his promise not to see or speak with that-woman again except he came first to her-his wife-and told her the need; then had gone secretly, almost directly, to meet his old love in the shadows of the night long after the hour that usual " saw the Last light extinguished along officers row.
 If her old friend from baby days, the colonel, had come to her and said that Randy was false; if her idol, her be- loved father, had added his confirma- ton of the coloners views, she would have laughed them down so long as Randy-her hero ---AJy-swore thai he was true. Many q woman will stand by her lover against world in evidence yet turn to stone against him when sho sees one apparent sign of interest i another. Poor girl. He was her first her only love. He was hers and cr,y hers, and should be only hers, for whel. that other-creature had scorned an6 denied him. had he not been brough. sore stricken to her doors? Had sh: not won him back to life through tho wealth and glory of her own unsusrec. ed love? From the day of their we'd ding until this woman came never t2:i she known wish that was not his. Da. and night she dreamed, planned, ar thought for him, sought only to mal herself worthier his love, dearer to E!- eyes-sweeter to his caress. Who VI there to compare with him in man. ness, in courtesy, in kni9htly bearing What officer was the peer of Randy what officer ever in the dear O.. Rifers with whom had been her hor1 from baby days? They chided he some of the girls, in what they ccns her defection. You used to say the could be no regiment like the Rifers Floy. You used to VOW you'd reve marry out of the old regiment" "Ay, but that was before Randy came," WE
 
 her Randy was her world, and proud! she answered: T believe he is" The warned her-some Of the elder an wiser matrons-and God knows the had much on which to base their view -si was never safe to love any man to. much. even Randy; to which she aH- swered with sunshine in her eyes: ''How could one love Randy too much Mind yGu, she never volunteered thesi overGowings of her heart, but thes women had been her frienGs from l. earliest days. She was stii! shy, eve with him, but such well-meant wa, ings always seemed to put her on the dt fensiye. as it were. and. poor child. s,- believed it her duty 10 her husband tt.9 she should never allow him Q go und> ISNN6I. even tllOuSH LIE uttstch Nt4 intangible as a woman's sheer. An they looked so wei. together, and he wa so proud of her, so devoted to her, ''S: conscious of her" as some one said Nowhere in that garrison was tkerf man or woman who was able to say tha- Randy had not borne him1alf as an al most ideal lover and husband ever since that sun-kissed wedding day. Mar could even feel a sense of what is calle' ''agreeGble disappointment" which a. ways strikes me as phraseologica parallel for that other remarkably