New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-11-11

Officer killed Captain C. c. OBren. Dublin
Fusiliers." That was what he had read; one
or two other names followed, but he did not see
them Mechanically he folded the paper and
thrust II deep into the pocket of the overcoat
which the fcotman taking from him as rap
idly as he could
You late. and have had no one TO bring
me downstairs" said voice that brought Dick
to himself with a start. They had resolved to
go in TO dinner without him. and he had been
standing in the hall staring at them in a dazed
way almost without acknowledging his hosts
nod as they all filed by until Mrs. O'Brier came
past alone. She slipped her arm into his and
he went in. vaguely wondering what it he
had to do with the widow Of man forty-eisht
hours dead prattling beside him about the heat
and the flowers. INVITING him with trivialities
to what might have made him late, and
Iallying him his dulness.
4 SUPPOSE il is being married to soldier
she said that makes accustomed 90 punctu-
atty Pat is never late for anything"
Il the first time she had mentioned her
husband by name that evening and he caught
at the idea Ike a drowning at a Hfebelt,
Why arr ali Irshm"n christened Patrick >"
he asked, going at the point in a roundabout
way .nstinctlyey.
But they aren't" she exclaimed My hus-
bands name is George. He was christened
George Carruthers, only Pat suits him so much
better. You Will say when you him"
Dick could him in his minds eye, with
couple OF soldiers heaping dry sand over him in
a shallow grave. and firing party returning to
camp after their last duty. He even wondered
vaguely whether they marched back with arms
reversed, and what arms reversed might pre-
cisely mean. He had read Of soldiers funerals
in newspapers.
You really ought TO see him." she went on.
and. having once got upon the topic. talked OF
the husband whom she had married six months
before for the rest OF dinner time. telling her
hostess an anecdote Of him across the man who
sat between them. Her doing gave Dick an
opportunity to think. and possible solutions OF
the question what happen chased one
other through his head. She might not see the
news till the morning, reading it ali by herself
in her lodgings: he had called On her there and
she had told him how lonely and forlorn she felt
without Pat" The Vennekers We're almost the
only people she knew in London and they We're
only friends whom she had known as girls
know married people in London for a year or
two before her engagement. Again. she might
read the news in evening paper. he had
lone; it would be better in the morning than
with the loneliness Of night TO follow the blow
all alone at night in those dinSy lodgings or
some one might have seen the telegram aud
might blurt out the name he had read a. any
moment during dlnn,r, then there would he a
scene. in which he. Dick Templar. would b.. !
helpless spectator. Some day she might rer2er-
her how chearfully she had spent thu evening.
laughing and chatting when her husband lay
dead. and find out that he knew all the
time. Could he tell her quietly afterward? He
could. of course. drive home with her; probably
she would expect him to do so. Should he tell
Mrs. Venneker and ask her TO break the news?