Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-14
CHAPTER I.
Hero Versus Gentleman.

dSleIlul man oII Col 49,
Sempland. at that moment. was ne
The contrast between the two was ANUS
ing, or would have been had not the at
nosnhere been so surcharged with passion
ate feeling. for Rhett Sempland was SIX
feet high if he was an inch, while Fanny
Glen by a Procrustean extension of herSelf
could Just manage to cover the hve-toos
mark: vet such was the spirit permeatinS
the smaller figure that there seemed to be
no great disparity, from the standpoint OF
comba tants between them after all.
Rhett Sempland was deeply in love with
Miss Fanny Glen. His full consciousness
of that fact shaded his attempted mastery
by ever so little.
He was sure of the state of his affections
and by that knowledge the weaker, for
Fanny Glen was not at all sure That sGe
was in love with Rhett Sempland. That is
to say, she had not yet realized il; perhaps
better, she had not yet admitted the eS-
istence of reciprocal passion in ier own
breast to that she had long since learned
had sprung up in his. By just that lack OF
admission she was stronger than ne 1or
the moment. When she discovered the I'M
doubted fact that she did love Rl;ctt Semp-
land her views on the mastery of man
would probably alter-at least ior 4 time.
Love, in it's freshness, would make ner Il
willing slave: for how long, events only
could determine. For some women die
time. for others an hour only Cln eIapse
before the chains turn from adorhmeEts 10
shackles.
The anger that Miss Fanny Glen felt at
this particular moment gave her a tenn
porary reinsurance to some questions
which had agitated her-how much she
cared. after all. for Lieut.. Rhett Semp-
land and did she like him better than
Major Harry Lacy? Both questions were
instantly decided in the negative-for the
time being. She hated Rhett Sempland,
per contra. at that moment. she loved Harry
Lacy For Harry Lacy was he about whom
the difference began. Rhett Sempland, con-
fident of his own affection and hopeful as to
her had attempted, with masculine futility
and obtuseness. to prohibit the further at
tentions of Harry Lacy.
Just as good blood. gu fond. ran in
Harry Lacys veins In Rhett Sempland s
but Lacy, following in the footsteps of his
ancestors. had mixed his with the water
that is not water because it is fire.
He CROOKED the pregnant hinges of the
elbow without cessation. many a time and
oft, and all the vices-as they usually do
followed en- train. One of the oldest names
in the CarolinaS had been dragged in the
dust by this latest degenerate scion thereof.
Nay, in that dust Lacy had wallowed-
shameless. persistent. beast-like
To Lacy therefore. the civil war came as
a godsend as it had to many another man
i'm like circumstances, for it afforded an
other and more congenial outlet for the wild
passion beating out from his heart. The
war sang to him of arms and men-ay. as
war has sung since Troia's day, of women,
He did not give over the habits of life
time, which. though short had been hard,
but he leavened them, temporarily oblit-
Grated them, even by splendid feats of
arms. Fortune was kind to him. OPP
portunity smiled upon him. Was it run
ming the blockade off Charleston, or passing
through the enemy's lines with dispatches
in Virginia, or heading a desperate attack
on Little Round Top in Pennsylvania. he
always won the plaudits of men, often the
love of women And in 1t all he seemed to
bear a charmed life.
When the people saw him intoxicated on
the streets of Charleston that winter of
'63 they remembered that he was hero;
when some of his more frightful transgres-
sions came to light, they recalled some
splendid feat of arms. and condoned what
before they had censured.
How he happened to be in Charleston was
because he had been shot to pieces at
Gettysburg and had been sent down there
to die But die he would not, at least not
then. He would not have cared much about
living, for he realized that, when the war
was over, he would speedily sink back to
that level to which he habtually descended
there being nothing to engage his energies,
but his acquaintance with Miss Fanny
Glen had altered him.
Lacy met her in the hospital and there
lie loved her. Rhett Sempland met her in
Il hospital. also Poor Sempland had been
captured in an obscure skirmish late In
1861. Through some hitch in the matter he
had been held prisoner in the north until
the close of 1853. when he had been ex-
changed and. wretchedly ill., he had come
back to Charleston, like Lacy, to die.
He had found no opportunity for dis
tlnction of any sort. There was no glory
about his situation. but prison life and
fretting had made him show what he had
suffered. At the hospital. then. like Lacy.
he too had fallen in love with Miss Fanny
Glen.
u. ,.;rL, H. ,,o,o ~ 20 At. z.ou.. 49,.
haps, but the real hero. was much the
handsomer of the two-it is always so in
romances; and romances-good ones, that Is
are the reflex of life Such a combination
of manly beauty with unshakable courage
and reckless audacity not often seen
as Lacy exhibited. Sempland was homely.
Lacy had French and Irish blood in him,
and he showed ii. Sempland was mixture
of sturdy Dutch and English stock. Yet
if women found Lacy charming they in
stinctively depended upon Sempland. There
was something thoroughly attractive in
Sempland. and Fanny Glen unconsciously
fell under the spell of his strong personali-
~. The lasting impression which the gayety
and passionate abandon of Lacy could not
make, Sempland had effected and the girl
was already powerfully under his influence
stubbornly resistant nevertheless.
She was fond of both men, She loved
Lacy for the dangers he had passed. and
Sempland because she could not help it:
which marks the relative quality of her
until the moment at which the story opens
she could not have told.
Nobody knew anything about Fanny Glen.
At least there were two facts only in pos
session of the general public concerning her.
These however. were sufficient. One was
that she was good. The men in the hospital
called her an angel. The other was that
she was beautiful. The women of the city
could not exactly see why the men thought
so which was confirmation strong as proofs
OF Holy Writ.
She had come to Charleston at the out
break of the war accompanied by elder
" woman of uneXceptional manner and ap-
pearance who called herself Miss Lucy
Glen and described herself as Miss Fanny
GIens aunt They had taken house in the
fashionable quarter of the city-they were
not poor at any rate-and had installed
themselves therein with their slaves.
They made no attempt TO enter into the
social life of the city and only became
prominent when Charleston began to feel
acutely the hardShips of the war, which il
had done more than any other section to
promote.
Then Fanny Glen showed her quality A
vast hospital was established and the young
women of the city volunteered their serv-
ices.
The corps of nurses was in a state of con-
slant fluXion. Individuals came and went
Some of them married patients some of
them died with them. but Fanny Glen