Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-07

by, but it was useless Again he confronted
her. Piteousiy she looked up into his pale,
stern face and clasped her hands. oh.
Rolin.' she cried. give me my letters.
dare not-see you. Have mercy and
down again she went in senseiess heap
upon the stone. Col. and Mrs. Frost did not
sail with the Empress of India. Brain fe-
yer set in and for three weeks the patient
never left the hotel Frost made his wife's
dangerous illness the basis of an applica-
ton to be relieved from the Manila detail.
but, knowing well 1t would he late sum
mer before the troops could be assembled
there in sufficient force to occupy the city,
and that his clerks and books had gone
by transport with the second expedition
in June, the War Department compromised
on permission to delay. BY the time the
fourth expedition was ready to start there
was no further excuse: moreover, the doc
tors declared the sea voyage was Just what
Mrs. Frost reeded, and again their state
room was engaged by the Empress line,
and though weak and ianguid Mrs. Frost
was able to appear in the dining room.
Meanwhile vast amount of work was
sadded on the department to which frost
was attached, and daily he was called upon
to aid the local officials or be in consulta-
ton with the commanding general. This
would have left Mrs. Frost to the minis
trations of her nurse alone, but for the
loving kindness of army women III the no.
tel. They lowered about her room. taking
turns in spending the afternoon with her,
or the evening. for it was speedily aopar-
ent that she had nervous dread OF being
left by herself, "or even with her hus-
band said the most observing.
Already ii had been whispered that de-
spite his assduous care and devotion dur
ing her Illness, something serious was
amiss Everybody had heard of the ad-
venture which had preceded her alarming
illness. Everybody knew that she had
been accosted and confronted by a strange
young man, at sight of whom she had
pleaded piteousIy minute and then tainted
Nv
or had been nearly dozen of the grad
uating class in town-classmates of Rolln
Latrobe - their much loved Pat" and
speedily the story was told of his devotion
correspondence, of their engagement to be
married on his graduation, which in strict
confidence he had impaired to his room
mate who kept it inviolate until after her
sudden union with Col. Frost and poor
Pats" equally sudden disappearance.
Everybody, Frost included, knew that the
young man who had accosted her must be
Latrobe and Frost by this time knew that
it must have been he who caused her shock
at the Arlington. He ragged in his jealous
heart. He employed detectives to find the
fellow swearing he would have him ar
rested. He became morose and gloomy, for
all the arts by which Mrs. Garrison per-
suaded him that Nita looked up to him
with admiration and reverence that would
speedily develop into wifely love were now
proved to be Vaccinations. He knew that
Nita feared him, shrank from him and was
very far from loving him. and he believed
that. despite her denials and fears and pro-
testations. she loved young Latrobe He
wrote angriiy. reproachfully to Margaret
who. now that her fish was hooked did
not greatly exert herself to soothe or re-
assure him. That he could ever use vo-
lence to one so sweet and fragile as Nita
she would not believe for an instant. Then
the nurse. still retained, heard bitter words
from the colonel as one morning she came
to the door with Mrs. Frost's breakfast, and
while she paused, uncertain about enter
ing at such time. he rushed angrily forth
and nearly collided with her. Mrs Frost
was in tears when the nurse finally entered.
and the breakfast was left untouched
Late that afternoon, just after the yari-
Gus trunks and boxes of the Frosts that
We're to go by the transport were packed
and ready. and Mrs. Frost, looking strong
er at last though still fragile, almost ethe-
of her friends. the attention OF the two la
dies was drawn to crowd gathering rap
idly on the sidewalk not far from the Bald
win Hotel. There was no shouting, no com
motion. nothing bu: the idle curiosity of
men and boys for a young soldier hand
some. slender, dark-eyed, dark-complex-
Toned fellow Of twenty-one or two, had
been arrested by patrol, and there they
stood, the sergeant and his two soldiers
fully armed and equipped. the helpless cap
tive with his arms half filled with bundles.
and over the heads of the little throng the
ladies could see that he was pleading earn
esuy with his captoFs, and that the SER
geant though looking Sympathetic and far
from unkind. was shaking his head. Mrs.
Frost, hstless and little fatigued, had