Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-09-01

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Der by their faces. Miss Hampden
dropped her head in her hands and
laughed with the rest.
Between the acts Ardsley made in
quiries and learned the truth. He was
bitten with a desire to obtain the unat-
tainable, and he was not IL to daily.
He went behind the scenes.
"Whom are you going home with,
Miss Hampden"' he asked.
II fear no one will take me after the
light Mr.. Graves has put me in"
"May I do so?"
She nodded, and Ardsley went back
to his seat.
$50 you have refused the entire
army?'' he asked as they walked home.
"Not quite"
"The entire department."
"Well a fair percentage Of it," she
admitted.
"Are you going to refuse me?"
IT can't say until you are offered"
IT offer myself now"
"And / accept you now"
"Good enough. Will you announce
our engagement tonight at SUPERB
Sat the risk of being adjudged in.
sane-yes."
PUT OH this ring until I can get you
another. Your hands are not small. 1t
will fit your middle finger. Now l am
in earnest"
$50 am L." she said.
They were very much in earnest, the
event proved, and the garrison derived
unmixed pleasure from the total, un-
conditional, obvious surrender Of Miss
Hampden. She was as open in her in
fatuation as she had always been in ev-
erything else. And Ardsley was equally
infatuated. He took back the class ring
and gave her a diamond which cost him
three months pay. They were altogeth-
or happy. So, just a fortnight before
the day arranged for their wedding, the
gods demanded the first payment on
their loan.
Ardsley was ordered off on a scout.
Miss Hampden was the sort of girl
who might have been expected to take
this reasonably. But she did not. She
chung to Ardsley and cried like any lit.
tie girl and did not behave in the least
like a woman who had seen countless
scouts. And she let him go to the wars
remembering her standing with her arm
against the wall and her head upon her
arm, sobbing as if her heart were utter.
ly broken. He himself was moved and
stern. Loring would have liked to re.
mind her that hearts which were really
wrung did not show their pain. He had
not yet recovered.
Ardsley did not come back from the
scout. He was in a fight on what should
have been his wedding day. Others were
killed and their bodies were recovered
and buried, but Ardsley's body was new.
er found. There was a tale that a fire
had been seen Oh the battlefield the
night after the encounter, and in the
midst of the fire q tree with a form
which might have been that Of a mar
against it. There were Indians grouped
around it. Miss Hampden never heard
the story. She never even guessed al
what had happened until 20 years after
ward.
She was the superb and spiritless wife
Of a mighty general, and she was &C
companying her husband on a tour Of
inspection in the west. They were at al
agency one day and were visiting the
tepees. 1t was the agency Of the indiana
that young Ardsley had fought two
decades before, and the generals wife
was nerving herself not to show thai
she remembered this.
The general was examining the trim
kets that hung OF a string around thu
neck of a half blind squaw.
Here is a West Point class ring!'
he exclaimed.
His wife repeated her words Of q
years past.
MAY I see it?' she asked coolly.
She took it In her hands and turne.
It about. She could make out the de
sign, though it seemed to have passet
through some heat that had melted it
There was no doubs in her mind. New
ertheless she looked inside. The hea'
had not affected it there, and the mi
tials were quite plain even yet.
I'D. A." she said. at was Davii
Ardsley's ring. The fire did not toucl
the letters. I understand now why the,
never could tell me which was hi
grave"
The general broke the string ant
picked up the class ring from among tn
scattered baubles. The squnw was chat
tering and whining and clawin arount
on the earth. The general held the RIM
out to his wife. She raised the darl
eyes that had been 80 bright and happ.
the last time it had been held out t,
her.
"Can / have it," she asked.
!. The general put it in her hand. ant
the hand closed over it.
"Thank you," she said. -Gwendolel
Overton in San Francisco Argonaut.
Santa e Special Rates.
Annual National Rncampment Sons Of We
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