The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-01-12

A week rolled by, a week little Jim
Lawrence and other small boys long re-
membered for the good things they had
to eat and drink, and now Galahad
was sitting mp again at his quarters,
doing very we'll, said both doctors, 80
well that he could be out on the shaded
piazza in reclining chair, said Bray.
ton. but wouldn't, said Blythe, and for
good reasons. said the Fraziers femi-
nine, "becauee then there'd be no dodg-
ing Laura VIM, il indeed he has sue.
ceeded thus far" True, he had not
ventured outside his doors, and no one
had seen her venture within them.
True, Mrs. Frazier, Mrs. Blythe and
other mothsrly women had been to
visit him, Mrs. Frazier frequently, and
Mrs VIM had been most particular in
her daily inquiries, most persistent, "
said the Frazier girls Those were days
in which milk was luxury in faraway
Texas, but the delicate oustards, whips,
creams and what the colonel's Hiber-
nian orderly described as floating Ire
lands, which that messenger bore with
Mrs. Fraaisr's love or Miss Frazier's
compliments or Miss 'Manda Frazier's
regards and hopes that the captain was
better this morning, could be numbered
only by the passing days. What Mrs.
Frazier was prepared to see or hear OF
was similar attention ON the part of
Mrs. VIM, but Mrs. WINS attentions
took form more difficult to see and
even in frontier, old time garrison to
hear Of.
What Mrs. Frazier was not prepared
to see was Mrs. Blythe in frequent con-
fidential chat with the officer whom the
colonel's wife chose to consider her own
invalid. She had always fanoied Mrs.
Blythe before, but now she met her
with that understandable tone suggestive
of unmerited yet meekly, womanfully
borne injury, which is SO superior to
either explanation or resentment. Mrs.
VIM was frequently on her piazza
chatting with Mr.. Brayton or DR..
"Funnybone, as the wits Of the post
had designated Collabone's right bower,
"who has more brains in one head, ="
said Collabone, "than the mess has in
ten, but she greeted Mrs Frazier with
an austere and distant dignity even
more pronounced than Mrs, Frazier's
manner to Mrs. Blythe, which plainly
showed that Laura had not "been raised
in the army for nothing" and that she
had will and temper and pluck that
would brook no airs and tolerate no as
pensions on Mrs. Frazier's part.
Aspersions there had been, for her
friend Mrs. Faulkner had not failed iii
that sisterly duty which SO many woln'
en- SO reluctantly yet faithfully perform,
and everything Mrs. and the Misses
Frazier had even limited and some things
they even hadn't were duly conveyed to
Laura's ears. She was angered at the
Fraziers for daring to say such things,
at Mrs. Faulkner for daring to repeat
them and at Barclay for daring to keep
her beyond the possibility Of their being
true. Never before had she known what
1t was to strive for look or word OF
admiration and to meet utter indifer
ence, yet those blue eyes Of Barclays
had once fairly burned with passionate
delight in her girlish beauty, and his
words had trembled with their weight
of love for her. No other woman, she
believed, had yet come into his life and
hanished all memory of her, and now
that her beauty was but the ripper for
her years she rebelled in her soul
against the whisper that it oonld no
longer move him.
(To Be Continucd.)