The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-10-26
CHAPTER III.-CoNrNUED


"You know he was engaged-to some
b0dy-east, and it was broken Off"
said Mrs. Tremaine, ''ard l hadn't
Thought of danger until just a day or
two ago. Now-if he's going next
week, as he says--and 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. 1t
was Wells who forbade. But Grafton
always Liked Merriam and Hayne be-
Iieves in him. Our Florence might do
worse, Dot"
'tBut do you understand?' she said,
edo you realize that, just from proXimi-
ty perhaps, Florence may have learned
tOeare 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,
IL isn't possible! She-he-he must
have learned to care for her. 1t coulAnt
be otherwise. Only hadn't thoughts
Floy except as child, and l wasn't
prepared"
Like many another father, to whom
g. daughter is as the apple of the eye,
Tremaine could see no 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
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 2Sth of August
hop, the year of his marriage. He had
promised to take her thither for the
graduating ball, and had pictured her
as the belle of the occasion, sought
eagerly by the cadets as their partner
for waltz or "two-steD;" and, as in his
eyes she was the most perfect creature
that ever lived or moved his one anx-
tety was lest the boys In gray, always
susceptible, should forget that Floy was
only child and fall in love with her
forthwith. 1t never occurred to him as
possibility that Floy In her turn might
fall in love. But there was no delicious
visit for Florence to the Point that year
The moment examinations were over
at school her mother started with her
for the far west. and Tremaine met
them at Santa Fe Junction. Then, after
one brief week at Sedgwick, they had
started for the cantonment, and there
had led their uneventful life until the
coming Of Randy Merriam, PROSTATE,
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 no word or sign of being himself
sorely heart-Smitten, was determinedly
talking of going back forthwith to the
mountain trails. Tremaine would not
let his beloved helpmeet 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 froek that doughty major
donned whenever he sailed forth to ask
the Intentions of O'Malley's dashing
Hight dragons, and this reflection gave
him pause Il, 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. 1t 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.
Meantime the culprit officer himself
had been carefully lifted into the doc.
tors buggy, and with that excellent
practitioner was enjoying drive. The
one thing Wells could not understand
was -hat, while spatientrapldly gained
In health, flesh and appetite, he seemed
sotodroop in spirits. Notone word hat
he been told of Merriam's broken en-
gagement, beyond what Mrs. Tremain'
had impaired, and she could give but
Ss~ty information. Merriam wal
xrs ef,,i for all he care and attention