The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-17
MAJOR CROSS PRETTY WIFE

He was a melancholy man. 1 met
him at my Fogy Club. / did not know
his name. In my own mind l looked
on him as the man who had always
sat in the same corner, smoking
Trichinopoli cheroots. He was very
neat as to his dress, and 1 detected at
once that at sc,ne time or other lie
had been in the service. His hair was
perfectly white, and the man appeared
worn out with some secret grief, some
mysterious trouble.
/ made Major Fowler's acquaintance
after having dined a little better than
usual, and l was correspondingly elated
and felt / must talk to somebody; So
faut de mieux, talked to him.
Why it was l do not know. There Is
no other word for tive "chummed,' "
literally chummed, at once. We had
both served in the same presidency, we
had met the same people, but Major
Fowler was senior to me. He had be IN
through the mutiny: / had not.
1t was a rather CHASTITY affair, and
cannot see why he should have con-
fided it to me.
AT any rate, this is what he told
me:
l was only Lieutenant then a
Lieutenant in the --th Bengal Native
Infantry The mutiny had already
broken out in our presidency, but our
regiment was supposed to be particu-
larly well affected. Kerimabad Was
wretched place; it was one of the dull
est and hottest stations in the presi-
dency. We were very hard up for Eu-
ropean. Officers; some were on leave-of
course'th were hurrying back as fast
as the P. & o. boats could carry them;
some were on detachment duty, others
away on special employment but the
bulk of them were on the sick list, for
Kerimabad was an unhealthy hole, al
though its strategic Importance was toe
great to allow of it's being unoccupied
and to our regiment had fallen the duty
of occupying it. From the circum
stances 1 have mentioned Major Cross.
who was in command, and myself were
the only two men on the effective list
Cross was a martinez; he had risen
from the ranks, and was extremely re-
ligious. We naturally saw a great deal
of each other.
Major Cross was married. and his
station. Not six months before Major
Cross returned from .furlough with his
bride. Of course we all fell in love
with her. What she could have seen in
Cross, l cannot make out; why she
married him, heavenl only knows. Cross,
though a most deserving officer, was
perhaps hardly what would be called
a gentleman; but his wife was a lady
h
been in her twenty-first year. She was
blonde and petite, with dreamy blue
eyes and masses of curling hair, which
gave her girlish beauty an air of reck-
1essness which was but an additional
charm. Her greatest delight was horse
exercise. At an early hour Mrs. Cross
was certain to be in the saddle; in the
afternoons, as soon as ever the sun was
low enough, the Majors wife might
have been seen on her dapple gray Gulf
Arab flying across the country, attend
ed by one or more of her husbands
subordinates.
l had been in love with her from the
first; but l am not an excitable man,
and perhaps it wasn't genuine love.
after ALL l know that there was not
the faintest shadow of improperly in
the love. if we must call it so, that l
felt for the Majors wife. True, / was
her willing slave, her constant cavalier.
Perhaps l pitied the girl married to a
man twice her age, man with but
two ideas in his head-drill and disci-
pline. They say that pity is akin to
love-perhaps it is; but l had not the
least idea of running away with Rosa
Cross not the remotest; my affection
for her was purely platonic-at least ii
was till the fatal afternoon when we
rode out together for the last time at
Kerimabad.
Our horses We're walking, their bril-
dies on their necks, our native grooms
some fifty yards behind us on the sandy
plain.
Jack she said to me unfortunately
We were Jack and Rosa now, Il shan
be able to bear it much longer. The
mail was in again this morning: all
my friends are urging me to go down TO
Calcutta at once. l don't think it's
fair of the Major to make poor little
woman live with her heart always in
her mouth. o jack" she sobbed, and
the tears ran down her face, Il am so
afraid of the nasty blacksi"
Now, this particular remark was Pc
cuiiarly irritating to Major Cross. Com
mairding, as he did a native regiment.
he naturally disliked the expression. So
angry had he become that Rosa never
dared to use her favorite expression in
her husbands presence.
"Of course it's very rough on you, but
don't see any way out of it. You
are the only European in the station,
Cross and / are the only two men
here; we can't leave the place But
YOU shouldn't let it worry you; the reg
iment is well affected enough"
It's not true, Jack. Only this morn
ing my husband told me that the regi-
ment is on the point of mutiny"
The brute! No doubt he had told her.
Then he was a fool for his pains,'
I replied
ITS very hardu' sobbed the girl: for
she was but a girl, though she was my
comman ding officers wife.
Perhaps I remembered the first fact
and forgot the second when took her
hand, and looking into her eyes. swore
that I would look after her and that
there was no danger
She returned the pressure: she was
but acting. as / found out afterward.
All which dISs dCAI tSStS, L suppose, but
did not dream that the pressure of
her finger tips, the trusting, loving
glance which she flung upon me through
her tears, We're but the cursed bait
which was to lure me to my destruction.
All, if he would only let me go!' she
said; by morning I should be out Of
danger. ] am, too young to die here.
Jack. and to die as 1 should have to
a 6fs .-l@
There was; great deal in what she
id n'ha O