The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-03-29

Il doubt il you've Dreakfasted, broth
err" Crailey responded aloud, rubbing
the dogs head softly with the tip Of his
boot. "Will you share the meager fare
Of one who is poet, Should be a law
yer, but is about to become soldier?
Eth, but a corporal! Rise, my friend.
Up and be in your own small self
whole corporal's guard! And If your
corporal doesn't come home from the
wars, perhaps you'll remember him
andy. Think"
He made a vivacious gesture, the
small animal sprang into the air, con-
voluted with gratitude and new love-
while Crailey, laughing softly, led the
way to the hotel. There, while he ate
sparsely himself, he provided munifi-
Gently for his new acquaintance and
recommended him, with an accompani-
ment Of silver, to the good Offices Of
the Rouen House kitchen. After that
out into the sunshine again he went
with elastic step and a merry word
and laugh for every one he met At
the old English gardeners he bought
four or five bouquets and carried them
on a round Of visits of farewell to as
many old ladies who had been kind to
him. This done, leaving his laughter
and his flowers behind him, he went to
Fanchon and spent part of the after
noon bringing forth cunning argu-
ments cheerily to prove to her that
General Taylor would be in the Mex
lean capital before the volunteers
reached New Orleans and urging upon
her his belief that they would all be
back in Rouen before the summer was
gone.
But Fanchon could only sob and
whisper, FLUSH, hush" in the dim
room where they sat, the windows
darkened so that after he had gone he
should not remember how red her eyes
were and the purple depths under
them and thus forget how pretty she
had been at her best. After time,
finding that the more he tried to cheer
her the more brokenly she wept, he
grew silent, only stroking her head,
while the summer sounds came in
through the window, the mill whir of
locusts, the small monotone Of distant
farm bells, the laughter Of children in
the street and the gay arias Of mock
ing bird swinging in the open window
Of the next house. So they sat together
through the long, still afternoon Of the
last day.
No one in Rouen found that after
noon particularly enlivening. Even
Mrs. Tanberiy gave. way to the COM
mon depression, and, once more her
doctrine Of cheerfulness relegated to
the ghostly ranks Of the purely theo-
retical, she bowed under the burden
Of her woe so far as to sing "Methought
I Met Damsel Fair Cher of the burst
ing sighs) at the piano. Whenever sad
ness lay upon her soul she had acquir-
ed the habit Of resorting to this un-
happy ballad; today she sang it four
times. Mr. Carewe was not at home
and had announced that, though he in
tended to honor the evening meal by
his attendance, he should be away for
the evening itself, as comment upon
which statement Mrs. Tanberry had
offered ambiguously the one word,
amen" He was stung to no reply,
and she had noted the circumstance as
unusual and also that he had appeared
to labor with the suppression of a keen
excitement which made him anxious
to escape from her sharp little eyes;
an agitation for which she easily &C.
counted when she recalled that he had
seen Vanrevel on the previous evening.
Mr.. Carewe had kept his promise to
preserve the peace, as he always kept
it when the two met on neutral ground,
but she had observed that his face
showed a kind of hard leashed vio-
lence whenever he had been forced to
breathe the air Of the same room with
his enemy, and that the thing grew on
him.
Miss Betty exhibited not precisely q
burning interest in the adventure of
the damsel fair, wandering out Of the
room during the second rendition, wan
She had moved about the house in
this fashion since early morning, wear
Ing what Mamie described as ''peak-
ed look" White faced and restless,
with distressed eyes, to which no sleep
had come in the night, she could not
read. She could no more than touch
her harp. She could not sleep. She
gould not remain quiet for three min
utes together. Often she sank into a
chair with an air of languor and weari-
ness, only to start Immediately out of
it and seek some other part of the
house or to go and pace the garden.
Here in the air heavy with roses and
tremulous with June as she walked
rapidly up and down late in the after
noon, at the time when the faraway
farm bells were calling men from the
fields to supper, the climax of her rest
iessness came. That anguish and des-
peration, so old in her sex, the rebel
lion against the law that inaction must
be her part, had fallen upon her for
the first time. She came to an abrupt
stop and struck her hands together de-
spairingly and spoke aloud.
'What shall I do? What shall do?"