Arizona republican., 1898-03-02
1896. by F. Tennyson Neelv.

| thought of danger until just day or
 two ago. Now-if he's going next ! week. as he says-aud she has learned
 to care for him, what can we do?" He is going next week. said Ire maine. "He told me yesterday he ought to go now, and wished to go now. It was Wells who forbade. But Grafton always liked Merriam and Hayne be- iieves in him. Our Florence might do worse, Dot.''
 ''But do you understand?" she said. do you realize that. just from proximi- ty perhaps, Florence may have learned
 to care for him, while he is still thinking of his lost love?"
 You mean that-you think it all Florence and not Merriam ?" he asked. starting back, and holding her from him, and looking with amaze and in credulity into her eyes-straight into
 her anxious, fearful face. Why, Dot. it isn't possible! She-he-he must have learned to care for her. It couldn't be otherwise. Only I hadn't thought of
 Floy except as a child, and 1 wasn't prepared.
 Like many another father, to whom a daughter is as the apple of the eye, Tremaine could see TO fault, no failing in his child. To him she. was the fair est. as she was the best, fondest, most dutiful girl in the whole army. One of his favorite plans had been to take her to West Point the previous summer,
 and let her, as he said to himself,
 ''paralyze the corps" One of the sweet | dreams he had often dreamed was of i the evening when, with Florence on his
 arm, he should reenter the old mess ! hall, which he had not visited since it was bravely decked for the 18th of August i hop. the year of his marriage. He had promised to take her thither for the l graduatiTg 2 ball, and had pictured her as the belle of the occasion, sought eagerly by the cadets as their partner 1 for waltz or ''two-step;" and, as in his eyes she was the most perfect creature ! that ever lived or moved. his one anX- i iety was lest the, boys in gray, always
 susceptible, should forget that F,oy was i only child and fall in love with her
 forthwith It never occurred to him as
 a possibility that Floy in her turn might 1 fall in love. But there was TO delicious visit for Florence to the Point that year. ! The moment examinations were ever
 at school her mother started with her
 for the far west. and Trenaine met
 them at Santa Fe Junction. Then, after
 one brief week at Sedgwiclz, they had started fer the caltonl.1e1t, end there i had led their uneventful life until the
 coming of Randy Merriam, prostrate, with the days of another June. And
 now, while Florence was in tears and
 hiding in her pretty room above stairs,
 this errant, erring, invalid warrior, with TO word CT sign of being himself | sorely heart-smitten, was determinedlj- '
 talking of going back forthwith to the
 mountain trails. Tremaine would not let his beloved hclpmeet speak, either
 to Florence or to Merriam. but he fully
 meant to say more words than one to
 Merriam himself, and then he be- thought him of Dalrymple, and the
 famous frock that doughty major 6onned whenever he sallied forth to ask i the intentions of O'Malley's dashing i light dragons, and this reflection gave
 him pause. If, either by accident or de-
 sign, the heart of his precious child had
 become wrapped up in Merriam, then
 Merriam should not leave the post with
 out an explanation. But there was yet time. It might be that the poor fellow
 was really sore smitten himself, and that the tender but unconquered heart
 of his daughter was touched with pity
 for his suffering.
 Continued Tomorrow.)