Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1900-02-02

N "AAA "SA
chatter when he was we'll enough to
care to talk. But, after all, her most
serious trouble seemed to consist in
keeping Billy Gray at respectful dis
lance. He sought her side day after
day, to Armstrong; mild amaze, as
has been said; and when he could not
be with her was moody, even fierce and
ugly tempered-he whose disposition
had been the sunniest in all that gray,
shivery, dripping sojourn at the San
Francisco camp.
But n c fairly settled in Manila, the
White Sisters seemed to regain all the
old ascendency. Col. Frost had taken
q big, cool, roomy house, surrounded
by spacious grounds, down in Malate
and close to the FLASHING waters of the
bay. Duties kept him early and late
at his office in the walled city; but
every evening, after the drive and din
ner, callers came thronging in, and all
Witches witcheries were called into
play to charm them into blindness and
to cover Nita's ftful and nervous
moods, now almost painfully apparent.
Frost's, face was at times a thunder
cloud, and army circles within the outer
circle of Manila saw plainly that all
was not harmony betwixt that veteran
Benedict and that fragile, fluttering,
baby wife. The bloom of Nita's beauty
was gone. She looked wan, white, even
haggard. She had refused to leave
Hong-Kongorcome to Manila until Mar
garet's arrival, then flew to the shelter
of that s~isterly wing. Frank Garrison
had beer occupying a under the
same roof with his general, but both
general and aide-de-camp were now
much afield, and Frank spent far more
days and nights along the line of block
houses than he did at home. The COM
ing Of his wife was unannounced and
utterly unlocked for. Did 1 consult
my husband!" she exclaimed in sur
prise, when asked the question one day
by the wife OF a veteran field officer.
"Merciful heaven, Mrs. Lenox, there
was no time for that except by cable,
and at four dollars a word. No! If
any doubt of what Frank Garrison will
say or do exists in my mind 1 go and
do the thing at once, then the doubt is
settled. If he approve, we'll and good;
if he doesn't-well, then I've had my
fun anyway"
But it made little difference what
Frank Garrison might think, say or do
when Nita's need came in question. It
was for Nita that Margaret Garrison so
suddenly quilted the Presidio and has
tened to Hawaii. 1t was for her sake,
to be her counsel and protection, the
elder sister had braved refusal, difficult
ties, criticism, even Armstrong; open,
suspicion and dislike, to take that long
voyage to a hostile cline. That she
braved, too, her husbands displeasuro
was not a matter Of sufficient weight to
merit consideration. She was there to
help Eita; and until hat hapless child
were freed from a peril that ever
threatening, seemed sapping her very
life, Margaret Garrison meant to stay.
For the letter that came by way OF
Honolulu had told the elder sister of
increasing jealousy and suspicion on
the colonels part, OF his dreadful rage
at Yokohama on learning that even
there-the very hour Of their arrival
when the consul came aboard with q
batch of letters in his hand, he had one
for Mrs. Frost. She had barely glanced
at it's contents before she was stricken
with a fit Of trembling, tore it in half,
and tossed the fragments on the swift
ebbing tide, then rushed to her state
room. There she added a postscript to
the long letter penned to Margaret on
the voyage; and the purser, not her
husband, saw it safely started on the
Gaelic, leaving for San Francisco via
Honolulu that very day. That letter
beat the ordinary mail, for the Queen
was heading seward, even as the Gaze
lie came steaming in the coral-guarded
harbor, and a little packet was tossed
aboard the new troop ship as she sped
away, one missive in it telling Witchie
Garrison that the nan whose life had
been wrecked by her sisters enforced
desertion was already in Manila await
ing her coming, and telling her, more
over, that the packet placed in Gen.
Drayton's hands contained only her
earlier letters. In his reckless wrath
AallODC udu lOlu ACI tudU CuOS0 WHICH
bound her to him by the most solemn
pledges, those that vowed undying love
and devotion, were still in his hands,
and that she should see him and them
when at last she reached Manila.
Three mortal weeks haa the sisters
been there together, and never once in
that time did Nita venture forth except
when under the escort of her black
browed husband or the protection of
her smiling, witching, yet vigilant Mar
garet. Never nee had their house been
approached by anyone who bore resem-
blance to the dreaded lover. All along
the Gale Real, where were the quarters
of many officers, little guards of regu-
lars were stationed; for black rumors
of Filipino uprising came with every
few days, and some mems hearts were
failing them for fear when they
thought of the paucity of their num-
bers as compared with the thousands
of fanatical natives to whom the taking
of human life was Of less account than