Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1906-12-16

room. with hi4h alanteipiece of
 t4.t.t Wea4 carved v.eh eatiands and Iyres aud shepherds pipes lofty
 collins tu Whi.n ~t8eeo, a- carpet Q.
 BIttss.Is. aot- 1et worn to a9les lcov-
 er.n4 fbe whole floor. when lH1.1 pee l pIe Were satisfied with mea&er ! sduareI and q set of furniture in ! French walnut. including a bookcase and a folding screen. The latter had
 made it possible for Roz to cut off the
 corner where he slept on q soldier 5 cot. His washing things were kept ln one of the refrigerated closets, and Ill the other a few cooking utensils and stores answered the calls of his still healthy appetite when it could not by any possibility be induced to hold it's
 peace. The landlady had also left him two sets of window curtains of red moreen. and when his coal had not
 run out and a fire licked the old CO., Ilonial chimney back Roz had good req son to feel himself the star lodger as 1 far as surroundings were concerned.
 At an ordinary time Roz St. Quen- tin, as generous and sweet tempered youth as eyer drew breath, would have taken keen interest in dfferentiatin2 between the occupants of the various rooms, for nobody had a floor, He would have speculated about their characters and antecedents, their tri- als and eXternals, and would have ended by making friends among them, Richmond society, and everybody knew everybody else to the remotest grandfather or sixteenth cousin.
 But the truth is the poor lad was sick at heart and sore to the touch over his calamity of body and wreck of prospects-and something else! It was as if pin had pricked the iri- descent bubble of his life and hopes. Tn the hospital, neryed by the greater suffering of some around him, and cheered by the surgeons and nurses.
 who took delight in him, and the visit of brothers in arms. who came breath ing words of cheer. St. Quentin of South Carolina. had kept up his cour- age splendidly. But this dreary grind of solitude cased in his room. alternated with desk work, he des- pissed, had told on his spirits to an ap- preciable extent He had become morbid. short of speech, almost sur ly. And here it was barely Decem
 ber and there were months more of il ahead.
 By this time in our narrative it is in
 order for those interested in the main springs of masculine action 10 cher
 chez Ia femme She was not far away in St Quentin's case, since Miss Lefty Linden had the repuation of more hearts on her string than any girl of her day in Richmond, and was constantly in evidence, walking from | Franklin street, riding out on horse back in the environs of the town, at
 tended by a staff of officers, or bril- liantly swrling in the mazes of the
 starvation parties" with which the
 young peopl tried to trick themselves ] into belief that grim visaged war was
 not always close at hand. He had known the charmer since his univer-
 sitv days, where she had come as a
 girl of sixteen, merry, pretty, her
 head turned by mems attentions, to be
 present at one of the commencements.
 Lefty had begun by laughing at St. Quentins lordly ways, his belief in
 his own supremacy and the fabulous origin of his family Then she had grown interested in him, and had al flowed him to correspond with her. For him there had never been any other woman since the first. She really did
 him enormous good. reducing him tc
 a normal level and restraining his
 elf-conceit After he found him
 self" and became as other men. and liater on, when the tales of his bril- liant daring as soldier kept coming
 in like succeeding sea waves to hel
 feet. I.etty's heart--which really eX'
 isted, spite of numerous doubts to tho
 contrary-flled with pride in her pos
 session She knew that she had hiH
 bound. hand and foot, and some da, she meant to let him know that sht
 returned his love. And so it had gone
 on u.etty accredited as 9 fiancee tt