Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-19
sstSsg cxAafs xzye>

she could never fill. They seldom spoke Of
Ethel Hoyt. perhaps because Jane felt sure
ne was forever thinking of her. They rare
iy heard from or even of her. When s:Iffi-
cientiy recovered to hobble about, young
HAYDEN Hoyt, as they always thought of
him. had been taken east, his father c11Iing
Tor him and bringing him to see the Fanes.
not once but twice. before they left. and
both times expressing fervent gratitude 10
the young officer for the valiant deed that
had spared to him the life of his hct.
headed boy. who In his turn had risked
either life or liberty in the effort to rescue
Fame Honors are easy said Ronald.
laughing, in bidding them goodbye Med
ais of honor are. at least" laughed Hayden.
in reply, and told again how Sergt. Strans
and others had ceased to wear their own
after seeing Pggott's. And so. father and
son. the latter pardoned and discharged
from service. they went their way and
Ethel had not come at all. Fame had
written to her. a long letter, and had finally
sent to her a short one, telling her how
deeply he appreciated her effort to save his
name even to the extent of involving her
brother. but that was all. The mother and,
in part the sisters were still dependent on
him. What right had he to speak of love
when, confronting him at every turn, was
duty.
But Furlong was still there at the Point,
and in spite of all that fiippant manner
still a stanch friend of Ronald Fame and
Furiong saw fit to write of things Fame
read with eagerness, yet never fully an
swered. Furlong told how Hoyt, the alb
sent brother on diplomatic service had
come home and wrung a settlement out of
State Senator Belts, whom he had long sus-
pected. Furlong couldn't say just what had
been done. but it was common ia TX that Belts
had been unmaSked-had even been forced to
restore to the Hoyts certain securities he
mad SequeStrated. Belts had had his choice
between that and Sing Sing Once again
the father and daughter were in comfort
aDie circumstances, and had taken Hayden
abroad. 1t made it all the more difficult
" nd nj tod
that his surplus time might well be given to
the study of law, something" said he few
army officers know anything about State
College had no law department. but Vests
Office and library were at his Ronald S, dis
posai. And then" said Mrs. Haz!ett arch
ly, when she heard of the arrangement lit
will be so easy for the colonel to drop in
on Ronald winter evenings-iust to quiz
him. All the same, Mrs. Hazett heartily
approved CT Col West, who in turn was
forever begging her and the captain to
come out TO Groveton and spend few days
with him. The big house, he said was
nightly lonely. How he wished that Fame
and his sister could he induced to come
and board with him for nothing instead of
paying much of their slender income into
the Golfers of Mrs. Jameson.
So Fame had been studying law some six
teen months when this second June came
round. and that sorely wounded shoulder
was still source of frequent torment. and
West had long been limiting at the posi-
bility of retirement from the profess on of
arms and a call to the bar. The army said
he. was but a poor place in. peace for even
soldier and the son Of soldier. and Ron
AIDS ears being deaf TO such semi-orofss-
sional pieadings, the colonel had been hav-
ing others in the shape Of long talks with
Jane--talks that grew longer with the
sweet, spring-sunshiny days and the per-
fume of the lilacs, the glory of the apple
blossoms, the melody OF the myriad song
sters fitting in and cut among the fresh
and whispering leaves, the mad frisk of the
Childhood. The talks grew longer still with
the long May days. The talks grew COM
plicated with walks that started briskly
and soon turned to saunter, and to silences
that were eloquent to these two, strolling
iii the soft May twilight along that ever
murmurlng shore. and one night in early
June Jane came to Ronald and chung to
him awhile, and he pretended not to know
what might be coming. when from his
shoulder she looked up at him, shyly yet
with shining eyes, and when at last it was
told and there had been the long and
longed-for exchange of condolences, Jane
locked again into his face, asking still for
more, and still there was something he
would not speak Of and she who had
stTiven once to interpose-to turn him from
that other girl who had once seemed des-
tined to come between them-now sought
a way to turn him yet again. and not by
word sign would he encourage her.
And SO when the last goodnight had
to be said and the Senator was BOOM
ing the hour of eleven, and all was silence
on the hill, she could brook the barriers
no longer. The cry came from the depths
of her happy yet yearning heart: 'Oh,
Ron, Ron! now won't you go to herr"
There were many sisters, heaven be
thanked who think as Jane did. that all
her brother had to do was to ask and it
should be given. to seek and he should find
his hearts desire.
1t was, at last and after long trial, Jim
Hoyt's graduating June, and in those days
of yore they used, most uselessly, to hold
he LOGS in, .1d at fSn,-r, and rah
patience and little discipline for week or
after examinations were over and the
standing settled. awaiting final orders from
Washington; and so it happened that, in
ample time to see last parade at the
Point, Ronald Fame arrived there one ex-
quiste evening in mid June, two days only
after he had said adieu to the blue bat
talon at Groveton, and Furong met him
at the south dock and drove him bag and
baggage, to his bachelor quarters in tne
angle. Jimmy Hoyt," said he. has just
managed to Skin through though he's
swamped in demert and sixty-first in en-
gineering-they graduate sixty-two. Another
month OF it would have been the death OF
the old man. He looked pretty well petered
out, Fame: so does She"
And later that evening, as with shrill,
soldier melody the drums and flies went
echoing through the resounding sallyport,
signaling their martial tattoo, for the first
time since the wintry day at Groyeton
nearly eighteen months before Ronald
Fame looked upon the face that had lived
day and night in his dreams, and saw
that. however haplessiy expressed, Fur
longs descriptive was not entirely unwar-
ranted. Ethel Hoyt, leading and half-sup-
porting her father, came slowly up the
pathway from the westward hedge where
they had been bidding Young Hopeful
good night. With apparently no more
pressing anxiety on earth than that of re-
porting his return at the cadet guardhouse
before the last roll of the drums Mr. Jimmy
Hoyt, with a dozen other light heeled
hsht-hearted young warriors went dancing
away in double time down the road to the
barracks, and the same moonlight that re-
yealed the swift flashing white trousers
fading gradually in the dim distance. fell
upon the only object sought by Ronald's
gaze-upon those wan yet beautiful features
close at Rand. upon soft, uplifted eyes. filed
with troubled thought and care