Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-22
CHAPTER I.
Prologue: At the Point.

| 1t was nearly time for parade. The drum
ma jor in his tall lynx-skn shake was al
ready marshaling the band in the hollow
north of Trophy Point, preparatory to the
| march over to camp. The sun had sunk
behind the westward heights. but was still
ginting from cornice and window among
the scattered summer homesteads across
the Hudson and taking last peep through
the rift of Washingtons valley. Even the
snowy tents of the battalion. pitched at the
| eastward verge of the cavalry plain
were deep in shadow, though the whisper
ing crests of the leafy square that hemmed
the little white city, as well as the dense
cluster in the heart of old Fort Clinton,
were all ageam in the golden light. The
pathway from the south porch of the hotel
leading straight away through the hedge to
the visitors tent was dotted by little
groups OF men and women sauntering
| campward for the closing ceremony of the
| day, yet here, pefched on the piaZzas COM
manding good views of the broad thorough
! tare from the SOUTH straight as a die from
| the grim ''old Academic" and the curving
| road from the west Skirting the northward
| edge Of the piateau--here along the railing
| fingered little bevies of bright-eyed ex-
| cited girls, chattering in hushed yet eager
| tones, dressed i'll dainty summer toilets
| ready even at this early hour for the hop
| scheduled to begin, temps militaire at 4
O'Clock, and to close abruptly at beat of
| drum, one hundred and ten minutes there
! after. They counted their pleasurng al
most IN seconds a generation ago at the
| Point.
| 1t was high. time these fair vedettes
| should be at their customary seats under
the trees behind the guard tents, unless
| prepared to see them occupied by aliens
from CozZens' and the Falls" Cadet
| beaux by the dozen, but lately in evidence
had Scampered to join their companies, the
last loiterers just skipping down the steps
| after laughing, lingering adieux-two first
| classmen, who, being merely high privates
| had not to wind themselves into their
sashes, hut could don dress hat, belts and
| gloves in twenty seconds. Something it
must be of unusual import still held so
many damsels at the hotel when all other
| things being as usual. they should be
| among the spectators at camp. what can
! have happened? She's got to dress for
the hop He's got to inspect his COM
pany" And there comes the band now,'
| Ihese fragmentary excerpts from the re-
marks that flew from lip to lip will perhaps
| furnish the clue to the situation. 1T was
when they rode away, and now it's nearly
| {, And there's the drum observed Miss
FELTON,, wide-eyed and fiuttering.
And here they GOMEZ suddenly an
| nounced less imaginative maiden, dra W.
| ing instantly an eager flock to peer in the
! direction indicated by her outstretched
| hand. At swift canter, through the grand
| old elms at Trophy Point, the riders came
| twilight of~ the grove and the screen of
waiting carriages. darting into view with a
| little cloud of dust like the tail of a comet
| following IN their wake. Nearing the hedge
| they gradually refined in to a decorous trot
then to walk as they passed beneath the
| battery of searching glances along the rail-
| ing Il declare, every girl at the Point is
| on watch. Look she had murmured as
| they neared the hedge, and he who had no
| eyes except for her, looked saw. flushed a
| bit, but all the more determinedly resumed
| his earnest words. He only tipped his
| jaunty forage cap impersonaily to the line
| of archly uplifted eyebrows, the pretty,
| questioning, quzzicai faces she had greeted
! with laughing ease and grace. West
| Point beauty brochette,' he whispered
| as he sprang from his horse, turned him
! loose to be gathered in by the impassive
| orderly in waiting, and stepped quickly to
| her side as she threw her knee from the
| pommel and turned lightly touching his
| shoulders she swayed forward to meet
| his uplifted hands. Quick, daft and firm
| he swung her to the foot of the steps.
| There, one instant, her graceful head was
[ inclined to his as in parting he murmured a
| word or two. There was rather lingering
| handclasp all the girls. almost all. on
| the south piazza saw at the time. and all on
| both piaZZaS heard of 1T before parade was
| over. Then. barely touching the stirrup,
| the young officer in the natty shell jacket
| worn at the time by our cavalry and light
| artillery sprang into saddle again and shot
| away through the east gate and round Fort
| Clinton out of sight. The girl came quietly
| up the steps, her stylish riding habit lifted
| clear of the slender bottines nodded again
| gayy to the groups along the rail- but in
| stantly joined an elderly, richly dressed
| woman who stood at the entrance to the
| hall. Your father has been waiting ever
| since the Powell came" they heard her
say, reproachfully. and together the mother
| and daughter passed from view.
| There was silence moment, then up
| spake the Dragon of the day tRest her
soul, she is long since gathered to her re-
1 -,1A. Nall Safl tnJ.
Belts expects to marry Ethel Hoyt he'd
better drop Wall street and dwell at West
| Point Now I'm going to supper"
| They had been almost inseparable since
| her coming to the Point, ten days before.
1t was her first visit. She had spent much
| of the four previous years abroad; had
| been educated in music and the languages
mainly in Dresden and Paris. Her French
| was something beautiful, said the girls,
| though they We're not so sure of her figure;
| the average woman finding it easier, some
| how, to concede to a possible rival intel
| Iectual rather than physical charms.
She was an only daughter and, in a way,
a family fetch. The Dragon could tell all
| about her, and did, and what she told was
| not all either true or pleasant, but none
| the less interesting. The father was Sc
| nior partner in the well-known and largely
| advertised firm of Hoyt, Hartman & Co..
in which company Homer Belts OF the
Manhattan Club, state senator on the
| shady side of forty-and politics-was be-
leved to be sleeping partner and a wake
full power behind the throne. Wei pre-
| served as the senator looked he had gone
| the pace" said eliminates, and had shady
side to something besides his years and
| affiliations. But he had that which covers
| a multitude of sins yet is not charity. He
| had gone to Carlsbad the autumn before,
| and later, when restored to apparent
| health to Paris. When he went it was
I said that his liver was touched when he
| came it was only his heart There could
| be no mistakng the ardor of his admira-
| ton for Ethel Hoyt, just through with her
| tutelage and ready to blossom out in met
! ropolitan society. He went over again IN
| the late winter He came home with them,
| paterfamiias being too busy at his desk. in
| the spring He had encouraged one of the
| sons, her brothers. in his aspirations to the
| heart and hand of a charming girl who I'M
| happily preferred another, and the young
| man went to China and minor consulate
He had seconded the second son. who long
| ed to be a soldier in his designs on West
| Point where he was now, at twenty-five, a
| turn back" to the third class, though
| claiming second class privileges. He had
| sought SAID Belts, to make a man of the
| third son, whom he had succeeded in en-
| broiling with his father to the end that
| there was violent row, money matters at
the bottom, winding up with the boys ac-