The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1901-12-06


that she nursed and cared for you
in the cars when you were suffering
from shock and fright because of a
fire. That's what she says, though.
What was it, Maidie? Was it there
Mr.. Stuyvesant got that burn on his
face ?-and lost his eyebrows?"
And. the: = transpired that Mr..
Stuyvesant had been a frequent and
assiduous caller for a whole fort
night, driving thither almost every
evening.
But Maidie was oddly silent as to
She episode of the fire on the train.
she laughed little about Miss Per-
kins and her pretensions, but to the
disappointment of her hostess could
not be drawn into talk about that
tall. handsome New Yorker.
And what seemed strange to Mrs.
Brent was that now, when Maidis
could sit up few hours each dav
and see certain among the officers
wives, arriving by almost every
| steamer from the states, and have
happy chats with Sandy every time
he could come galloping in from
PacO, and was taking delight in
watching the parades and reviews on
the Bagumbayan, and listening to the
evening music of the band, Stuyve-
SAINT had ceased to call.
Had Maidie noticed it? Mrs. Brent
wondered, as, coming in from her
conference with the house of com
mons, she stood a moment at the
doorway gazing at the girl, whose
book had fallen to the floor and
whose dark eyes, under their yelling
lids, were looking far out across the
field to the walls and church towers
of Old Manila.
! 1t was almost sunset. There was
the usual throng of carriages along
the Luneta and great regiment of
volunteers, formed in line of platoon
columns, was drawn up on the
Campo" directly in front of the
house. Sandy had spent his allotted
half hour by his sisters side, and, re-
mounting, had cantered out to see
the parade. Miss Perkins had de-
clared on the occasion of her third
fruitless call that not until Miss Ray
sent for her would she again submit
herself to be snubbed. So there
seemed no immediate danger of her
temperance, and yet Mrs. Brent
had given Ignacio orders to open only
the panel door when the gate bell
changed, and to refuse admission,
even to the driveway, to a certain
| impOrtunate caller besides Miss Per-
iGins.
Three days previous there had pre-
sented himself Il young man in the
white dress of the tropics and a hat
of fine Manila straw, a young man
who would not send up his card, but
in very Mexican Spanish asked for
Miss Ray. Ignacio sent boy for Mrs.
Brent, who came down to recon
hotter, and the youth reiterated his
request.
'An old friend was all he would
say in response to her demand for
his name and purpose. She put him
off, saying Miss Ray was still too far
from well to see anybody, babe him
call next day when DR.. Frank and her
/ IA OclliNls Sl1C hllCWs WOulll
be there. duly notified them, and
Frank met and received the caller
when he came and sent him away in
! short order.
1.-The man is a crank" said he, "and
l shall have him watched"
The colonel asked that one or two
of the soldier police guard should
be sent to the house to look after the
stranger. A corporal came from the
company barrack around on the
Gale Real, and it was after nightfall
when next the "old friend" rang the
bell and was permitted by Ignacio to
enter.
But the instant the corporal start
ed forward to look at him the caller
bounded back into outer darkness.
He was tall, sinewy, speedy and had
20-yard start before the little
guardsman, stout and burly, could
squeeze into the street. Then the
latter's shouts up the San Luis only
served to startle the sentries, to spur
the runner, and to excite and agitate
Maidie.
DR.. Frank was Disguised when he
tried her pulse and temperature half
an hour later and said things to the
corporal not strictly authorized by
the regulations. The episode was
unfortunate, yet might soon have
been forgotten but for one hapless
circumstance. Despite her announce
ment, something had overcome Miss
Perkins sense of injury, for she had
! stepped from a carriage directly in
| front of the house at the moment of
the occurrence, was a witness to all
that took place, and the first one to
extract from the corporal his version
of the affair and his theory as to
what lay behind it. In another mo-
ment she was dI living away towards
the Nozaleda, the direction taken by
the fugitive, fast as her coachman
could whip his ponies, the original
purpose OF her call abandoned.
AS in duty bound, both Mrs. Brent
and DR.. Frank had told Sandy of this
odd affair. Mrs. Brent described the