Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-09-14
An UnrevealedMyster
IOriginal.l.

at Fort Z. many years ago; 4 mystery
which has never to, this day and doubt
less never will be revealed Those I'M
der whose notice it took place are now
either on the retired list or dead. Yet
here and there doing over a newspa-
per at some army or navy club a white
headed Old man may be found who can
give the circumstances.
One day away back In the last cen
fury guests were assembling at the
quarters of Colonel Athern, command
ing Fort c., to celebrate the wedding
OF the colonePs. niece, Miss RoXana
Bonfield, with Lieutenant Reginald AL
len. Allen had secured a leave or had
been sent away on some. duty-it was
claimed that he was purposely absent
and was to have returned for a bach
elOr farewell dinner he was to give on
the evening before the wedding. There
were no mails or telegraphs handy at
that time by which he. could send any
word, and when he did not appear for
the dinner It was supposed he had
been unavoidably detained. But when
the garrison clock struck II the next
day, the hour appointed for the cere-
mony, and he did not appear there was
a hum of surprise.
Allen never did appear again at Fort
c. The Lady he was to have married
bore the slight put upon her so well.
never uttering a word of blame, that
she received the sympathy of every
one. Not person at the fort who
afterwaFd met Lieutenant Allen-he
offered no explanation of his conduct
but gave him a dead cut. He remained
in the army only year after the day
he was to have been married, when,
finding himself tabOoed wherever he
appeared among army people, he. re-
signed and disappeared.
Five years after her disappointment
Miss Bonfeld engaged herself to Cap
tain Gregg. The engagement occurred
Just before Gregg was ordered to an
other post. Certain young wags with
more love of saying mean things than
delicacy debated among themselves if
Gregg would behave as Allen had be-
haved. But Gregg, after. being en-
gagged for six months, during all of
which time he was absent from his
fancee, returned in ample time for the
wedding.
There is no record that any disagree
ment ever occurred between Captain
and Mrs. Gregg. During the first few
months of their marriage Gregg APP
p9ared as a devoted and happy hus-
band. Then one day when he went on
duty he gave evidence of having re
ceived a shock. To inquiries, as to his
health he replied that he was never
better Nevertheless he had a hunted
look and lost flesh till his uniform
hung about him in deep creases. While
the loving devotion he had shown his
wife did not continue, he was perfect
ly respectful and attentive to her.
What surprised every one was that she
did not treat him or appear to worry
about him as a sick man. She seemed
rather Indifferent than otherwise. Then
people whispered to one another that
she had never recovered from having
lost her first love.
Gregg finally got a years leave and
went abroad-without his wife. At the
end of the year he returned in fair
condition, but with something of the
hunted look left.
In six months he was sent to a re.
treat, where he died a few years later
Mrs. Gregg was now a woman OF
twenty-eight She had no children
and did not look her age. The unfOr-
tunate endings of her love affairs had
not seemed to cast any cloud over her
She was not at all depressed. She ap-
peared simply as any other young wO
man whose husband had died and left
her q widow. Her widOwhOod was
short. In eighteen months after Gregg's
death she became the wife OF Major
ThurSton.
ThurstOn's sister, an army woman
begged him not to marry Mrs. Gregg
But when the brother asked for rea.
sons he got nothing except what has
been told thus far in this story-that is,
that the woman had been treated
shamefully by her first fiance and that
her husband had died of some brain
or nervous trouble. The major de
clined to act the part of the first and
saw no reason why he should fear the
fate of the second. The sister still
protested; but, without a reason, he de-
clined to change his course. He mar
ried Mrs. Gregg and ten weeks later
committed suicide.
Thurston is not the first man who
has made a mistake by not needing a
woman's warning because no good or
sufficient reason accompanied it.
Women have been known to be right
in condemning a man from the shape
Of his nose. However, there was not
the slightest proof that Mrs. Thurston
had any direct or indirect influence on
her husbands suicide. What surprised
every one was that this climax to her
unfortunate matrimonial affairs seemed
to have no more effect upon her than
either of the other cases. She seemed
perfectly passive under each and all
Of them. Nevertheless she did nos
marry again, though it was reported