Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-10-06

mors OF reports that can be relied upon
to bring him infinite anxiety and con
cern-not that they wish to see him
suffer, but because the temptation to
tell direful tidings is SO uncomfortable
Then, again, when he is up and well
and able to dodge away she may not so
easily reach his ear. Whatever be the
reasoning, Miss Maynard felt that the
time for her to speak had come, and
| speak she did
Ronald, she began, edo you care
already-for that girl?''
And Ronald without speaking an
swered.
Whereupon Miss Maynard in tones Of
deep dismay calculated, sob, Ronald!'
and lapsed into silence indicative of
unspeakable woe, leaving him no al
tentative but to demand the reason for
her strangely significant conduct. No
little urging accomplished the object
1t required strong persuasion apparent
ly to induce the woman to tell what she
knew, or believed she knew, concerning
Nathalie Baird, but when once the ice
was broken there was no stint to the
swift torrents of her accusations.
1t gave her infinite pain, she declared,
to have to say one word against a girl
who was orphaned, homeless and, but
for Mrs Barry, practically friendless
but duty to her brother and the good
name their father had given them
prompted her to the task. Shy and pure
and innocent as Miss Baird might look,
there was cloud over her name and
character. She was carrying on clan
destine correspondence and holding Sc
cret meetings in the dead of night with
man, total stranger to the garrison.
For moment Maynard could not
speak. His face, pallid through illness
and suffering, took on shade of gray
that intensified its CHASTITY hue. His sis
ter looked upon him in astonishment
and in fright. Ronald" she cried, 81
did not know-I did not dr.s., it could
mean so much to you''
1t doesn't mean" he interrupted,
| finding husky voice at last. Then each
word seemed to come like the crack of
whip = sharp, swapping, tone that
never in his life had she heard from his
lips before. sit doesn't mean, for
don't believed id word of it''
Shocked and stunned, the woman was
| for the moment silenced. Never since
childhood days had he braved her.
Taught by his soldier father the most
scrupulous courtesy and gentleness to
women in general, his mother and elder
sister in particular, punished promptly
If in boyish temper he raised hand or
voice against either, he had passed from
the jurisdiction of that mother to that
OF the sister as unopposing as though
her sway for all time were unquestioned,
and Grace, womanlike, had accepted his
submission as her just due, had found
him yielding as ever to her dominion
when he returned to her on cadet fur
Tough and hardly less so when, with
broadened shoulders and in stalwart
manhood and bristling mustache, the
young graduate came once more to the
peaceful Mohawk village before joining
his regiment in the far west She had
looked upon him as her own to guide
and mold and direct as she had guided
and directed his toddling footsteps. She
had never knL wn him to oppose his will,
his plans, to hers.
She recalled how when, only three
weeks before it was time for him to
start for Wyoming, he came in all eager
ness one day to say that Wharton, Ives
and Draper of his class were to sport
their new uniforms for the first time at
the Twenty eighth hop (the ball
given by the cadets on the 2Sth of Au-
gust annually at West Point and had
written for him to join them, and he
was wild to go, she had glanced at Ger
trude Bonner sitting patiently in the
vine shaded porch of the old homestead
and babe him hold his reply until she
could have opportunity to speak with
him alone. How submissively, how af-
fectionately, no had yielded to her brief
argument. How entirely he seemed to
be swayed by her wish. How utterly for
years had the brother been her vassal-
"hers to command indeed. How in
definitely might she not have counted
on the continuance of her queendom had
not another woman stepped upon the
threshold o. her throne. Not only to
her, to the sister who had been his
guide and guardian, 10, these many
years, did hs owe allegiance now, but in
the jealous love of power and possession
burning in the woman S breast she had
come to regard it as her right to say to
whom her princeling should tender,
when the time came, the heart and hand
that she had held in fancy as only hers
| tn hastnw
fro BE Continued