The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-04-09
copyright. 1896. BY F. renny,on N..ly.l

yet turn to stone against him when she
sees one apparent sign Of interest in
another. Poor girl! He was her first,
her only love. He was hers and only
hers, and should be only hers, for when
that other-creature had scorned and
denied him, had he not been brought
sore stricken to her doors? Had she
not won him back to life through the
wealth and glory Of her own unsuspcct-.
ed love? From the day of their we'd
ding until this woman came never had
she known wish that was not his. Day
and night she dreamed, planned, and
thought for him, sought only to make
herself worthier his love, dearer to his
there to compare with him in manli-
ness, In courtesy, in knightly bearing?
What officer was the peer of Randy
what officer even in the dear old
Ri1ers with whom had been her home
from baby days? They chided her,
some of the girls, in what they called
her detection. "You used to say there
could be no regiment like the Rifers,
Floy. You used to VOW you'd never
marry out of the old regiment" AYE,
but that was before Randy came" was
her simple answer, and then they told
her Randy was her world, and proudly
she answercd: 81 believe he is" They
warned her-some of the older and
wiser matrons-and God knows they
had much on which to base their views
1T was never safe to love any man too
much, even Randy; to which she an
swered with sunshine in her eyes:
"How could one love Randy too much?"
Mind you, she never volunteered these
overaowings of her heart, but these
women had been her friends from her
earliest days. She was still shy, even
with him, but such well-meunt warn
ings always seemed to put her on the de-
feysive, as it were, and, poor child, she
believed it her duty to her husband that
she should never allow him to go unde-
Tended, even though the attack were
intangible as a woman's sneer. And
they looked so well together, and he was
30 proud of her, so devoted to her, $50
conscious of her." as some one said.
Nowhere in that garrison was there
man or woman who was able to say that
Randy had not borne himself as an al,
most ideal lover and husband ever since
that sun-kissed wedding day. Many
could even feel sense of what is called
agreeable disappointment" which al
ways strikes me Dis physiological
parallel for that other remarkable
euphemtsm Of SO many of our country
women-"she's enjoying poor health"
Yet-withal, Florence had the sympathy,
the genuine affection of all Fort Sedg-
wick, even in-or rather notwithstand-
ing-her enthusiastic estimate of RAN
dy's qualities as husband and as man,
and her. own extreme beatitude as
wife. Then Mrs. Buxton ventured to
fire shot, as she stood watching them
strolling homeward after parade one
evening, absorbed in one another, and
to observe to her own supremely in
different lord: There now, Bux,
there's another girl making fool of
herself over man, only she's the sweet
est fool ever knew in my born days"
Bux himself roared it out for Tloy's
benefit not long after, and did itso that
half Fort Sedgwick heard it, for the one
valuable quality Bux possessed as a
cavalry officer was his voice. The vol
ume of sound be could produce when
believing instructions to rcgimental
skirmish linewas something prodigious,
but of SO rasping and exnsperating a
timbre that his old-time derider, Blake,
likened it in force to fog horn and in
staying power to boiled cabbage-not
q neat comparison but one expressly
fitting.
And now. strangely enough, this mad
dest Of nights poor Florence could not
get those words and that tone out of
her head. She had flushed and turned
Hpeechless away at the time hurt to her
soul and indignant. too, but the train
ing of her youth was strong. These
were people her father and mother had
taught her to respect. and though an
CRY. indignant remonstrance was in
her heart, she stihed the words that
strove to spring to her lips.
Il expect I've put my foot in it again
to-day" reported Bux to his better half,
when he got home.
"Well. I'm sure I'm never surprised"
was the lady's prompt reply.
II fear I've been rude to Col. Buxton,
Randy faltered Floy, when that gen
tleman came in from troop drill an hour
later.
"You couldn't be rude even to Bux,
my darling" was his answer, MS he
folded her in his arms
And these ore not types Of the "flrst
year welded" and the quarter CEN
fury mated" love as seen in the army.
have known many and many couple
who have risen together through every
grade in the line, loved, loving and low
ers to the end.
At one o'clock Florence had set her
lights in the parlor window. At two,
with that booming, gong-lilse sound re-
verbcrating in her ears, that incessant
repetition Of Buttons coarse words,
she had sprung from the chair in which
she had been brooding, writhing, shud-
dering for half an hour, and then, tear
ing down the shade, close looping the
curtains, she hurried to the hall and
locked and bolted the door, "Another
girl making a fool OF herself for man
another grill" God! how the words
rang-resounded through her brain,
buzzed nnd whirred like angry wasps
in her ears, Kissed and ratified, aye,
stung like the venomons reptiles she
had learned to shun from early child
hood. Making fool of herself for
man who would leave her-so soon-for