The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-07
Blue for COnStanCy.

reward is apt to be like a pear which doe!
not fall till it is over-ripe, and is, in fall
ing, bruised to bitterness, is neither her,
nor there. The principle remains tn,
| same, and it is an entirely admirable one
The case of Miss Barrett is one in noint
Miss Barrett was the daughter of Captain
Barrett. and she loved Patmore almost
at sight; that is to say, the first week he
| came, fresh from the Point, into her IA.
theirs troop. 1t was natural enough thai
| it should have been so.
| Patmore was a good looking fellow
whose worst faults were that he used toe
much perfectly unintelligible academy
| French, and then he took himself Oversee
riously. The former, time would probably
remedy; but the latter meant that at the
| close of his career he would be one OF
| two things, according as the Fates, in the
guise OF his superiors. from his captain to
the adjutant general and the President OF
! the United States, should deal with him
He would either become an efficient officer
of considerable rank and renown. or a
disgruntled martinez of the service going
to-the-dogs and politicians type Always
provided, of course, that he lived long
enough TO become anything. which is not
to be calculated upon with as much GER
tainty now as it was before a country
brought up to mind it's own business,
turned Mrs. Pardiggle on its executive S
hands.
The love at first sight was entirely up
on Miss Barrett's side. Patmore himself
was not thinking about anything of that
KIND. Not that he was prig of cynic;
only that his interest in housekeeping
was directed to running the troop mess,
and his affections conferred in the pointer
puppy which he was training to hunt and
to eat sardines. But he was at a three
company post, remote from everywhere.
Miss Barrett was the only girl and he
was the only bachelor, except surgeon
who hated women and was getting on in
years. So, after time. he reached the
conclusion that he ought to be getting
married and settling down. He was not
living riotously, for the facilities were
few. but very young men may be relied
upon to pass through that stage, as
puppy does through distemper. And Pat
more was only twenty-and-five years old
and the crabbeduess of the surgeon was
fearful warning to him.
That was the first step. The next was
to persuade himself that he loved Miss
Barrett. The order cught properly to
have been reversed. but he did not think
of that. Besides, he was as susceptible
10 abject alteration as TIE next man. And
II might, therefore have resulted in his
taking the irrevocable step. had not
purely impersonal War Department come
to the rescue by removing him and his
regiment from the station, where they
had been too long, to much more desi-
rable one the Pacific Coast
Captain Barrett's troopers went to the
Preside. 1t was the first time in his ex-
perience. which. except for West Point,
had been confined to a little Middle West
town. that Patmore had been near a big
city for any length of time. Life took on a
Few meaning in his eyes, and SO did love.
For he met Hiss Tyndall. Miss TyndaN
was only beautiful and clever; whereas
Miss Barrett was a nice little thing and
good to her mother and the younger chill
dren and would make a man a good wife
But Patmore was young and foolish and
did not think of all that. He had not seen
Miss Tyndall dozen times before he was
very badly in love with her and did not
care in the least who knew it.
Miss Barrett was the last to do so, but
once knowing it, beyond any reasonable
doubt. she set him free. There was quite
a little scene. She had wept for days and
nights, and the fountain of her tears
might we'll have been dry. But she wept
again now. "You used to love me-" she
told him. 81 know you did" Patmore
knew otherwise In the light OF the present
You used to love me, but you don't any
more
Patmore hao an uncomfortable feeling
that he had not behaved just right and he
protested.
Miss Barrett caught the false ring of 1t
and smiled through her tears-.a smile of
pity for herself and him. Its no use."
she said, do you suppose 1 can't see that
you love her? And she probably loves
you. How could she help it, She held
out an unOstentatious little ring to him
and her hand shook painfully. you are
free she told him. but if you ever
come back to me. shall be waiting for
you. always"
Patmore rather approved of woman's |
loving that way. 1t is just as well for |
man to have an anchor buoy in some port. |
But, though he babe her keep the ring in |
token that what he had given he did not |
recall and though he vert forth from her
presence with IN air of injured dignity
which was calculated to cut her to the
heart, his relief was so great that it was
not to be n iStaken. BY way of Furnishing
himself for ii he attended strictly to Off
cial duties and did not pass out of the post,
even once. for an entire week. At the
end of the week he went in to see Miss
Tyndall
She was curled up in heap Of cush-
Ions, reading love story in a picture
magazine and she was got up very er-
in tea gown of pale sky blue
Miss Tyndall always wore sky blue. The
weekly society sheets. which said things |
about her in every other issue. called her
he ''Blue Belle" Sometimes the things
hey said were not altogether kind. but shs
vas a very nice girl for all that: and 1t
was nobody's business, except his and
lers II it took most of her fathers mod
crate salary to keep her in fine linen and
lale blue. For his part, Patmore, as he
,at and watched her while she made the
ca, thought that the greatest happiness
ife could hold for any man would be to
She was all but an angel descended
straight from the heavenly vault and
,lothed in its own hue.
That at least was his idea of her; but
he was an entirely human young woman,
Iuite human enough to put spoke in Miss
3arrett's wheel if she were to get the
hance.
who was that sweet little girl you
we're with on the Tiburon ferry the other
ay?" she wanted to know. She cuddled
own among the cushions again and rails
d a daintier hand than Miss Barretts to |
mooth her soft brown hair.
You can call another girl sweet and
little in way that makes the praise very
amt and damning.
Patmore looked uncomfortable as he
old her.
But Miss Tyndall was all interest
Miss Barrett?" she exclaimed: was it
eally? And you are engaged to her. are
GU not?"
Il was" said Patmore. but ON not
The unfortunately" was
nthing short Of hernic under the cir