The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-03
SELECTED STORY.
The Gold of Silence.


and walked in his deliberate way across
the hop. room to where Miss Cameron
stood, he was priding himself upon his
ability to hold his tongue, and, with
wretched sort of vain glory, nerving
himself to hold it for seven hours
longer.
Miss Cameron was talkingIto the reg
mental quartermaster, and when she
caught sight of Farland, she grew ra-
diant. The regimental quartermaster
observed this, and was, of course, an
noyed. He went away and left her
with the lieutenant.
It is the fate of woman to be for
ever smiling. Few men have learned
to distinguish that eternal smile. Those
who have, have observed the subtlest
tragedies of life.
Farland was not one of them. He
was too distinctly manly to understand
women. He was, therefore, strength
ened in his resolve to keep silence
when Miss Cameron's expression in no.
wise changed as he told her that she
must excuse him from the next dance.
~ have just seen the colonel, and he
has been pleased to inform me that L
must leave at reveille."
"For what portion of the globe?"
She gazed over his shoulder in APP
parent absorption in something at the
other side of the room. If Farland had
been a student of the sex he would
have known that this was over-acting.
1t was one of the many of Miss Cam
eron's charms that she usually fixed her
entire attention upon the person at
hand.
"Where are you going?" she repeat
ed.
"To join Blake's command. After
that, wherever the will of heaven and
the craft of the Apache may lead me-"
For just one instant her expression
changed. But Farland was not acute.
upon a scout, them" she asked.
Upon a scout, yes. And as have
to leave before reveille, and, as it is
now eleven O'Clock, there is no time to
be lost"
Miss Cameron was smiling again.
"You will not sleep much tonight.
Things must be serious"
"They are" he told her.
There was q pause-one of those in
tervals when the gods bedumb our
mental powers that instinct may have
fair play. But we defeat their ends.
We have trained instinct to lie quiet.
The lieutenant moved uneasily. Miss
Cameron, with the delicate much-sung
discernment of woman, thought him
restless TO be gone. She drew herself
up to her full height, determined that
she was Indifferent and hard, and his
resolution was enforced
"You must not let me keep you,' she
said
Farland was too well trained to al.
low his anger and unhappiness to APP
pear in more than an exaggerated I'M
concern. He took her extended hand.
''Shall you be here when return?"
he asked. His resolution was near to
breaking. If her tawny eyes had
grown ever so little soft, he would have
flung his golden wealth of silence to
the winds. But her pride was mighty,
and it was aroused.
"My visit comes to an end this week."
she said.
"We shall probably meet again." he
ventured.
She shrugged her shoulders negli-
gently.
''Probably. One can never be sure
that one has seen the last of anybody,
in the army" And then she added:
"Good-by"
She would have been glad to bow
her head upon her arms and to have
kept her heartache in silence. In
stead, she gave the dance which was
to have been Farlands to married
captain, and succeeded perfectly in her
effort to appear to enjoy it.
And Farland went out, morally and
bodily, into the night. His was the
code of honor-which considers not the
woman-that holds that if man may
not ask a woman 10 marry him then
and there, neither may he tell her Of
his love. He thought he was doing
right, and he was not one to rail at
Fate. A little tempest of temptation
conscience for time. But they were
sentiment the haughtily poised head,
and the placid smile, and the last
glimpse he had caught of her through
the hop-room window-a yellow-gown-
ed figure, swaying TO the music in full
enjoyment of life.
Well, she would have gone back to
Bayard by the time of his return, and
one could never be sure one would not
forget-after years. He went into the
barracks and gave his orders.
When the brass mouths of the bugles
pealed their reveille welcome to the
sun, as it shown above the mountains,
far across the prairie, Farland and his
command were trotting toward Mount
Graham, and Miss Cameron, still in
the yellow gown, stood at her window
with her hands clasped before her, and
watched the line of the receding col
umn.
Farland stopped at Bayard two
months later. The scout was over,
and he was taking his command back
to Fort Grant. They were to strike
the railroad at Silver City, nine miles
away, upon the following day.
He meant to see Miss Cameron.
There twas no longer reason for 81
lence. He waited with Impotence
while the commandant arranged for
the disposition of the men. Then he
walked with him across the parade.