The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-08-05
By SADIE oLcOTT
"CoIonel Eldridge."


"And if the penalty of the order is
transgressed?"
Twelve hours in the guardhouse."
very well. Consider the order is
sued Go to the guardhouse"
II? am not flirting | assure you
I'm in earnest"
She looked at the colonel a hand
some bachelor of forty. with a pair Of
beautiful eyes in. a way that puzzled
him.
81 have a mind to order you out Of
the garrison he said. you have be.
witched these young officers so as to
render them useless as soldiers. and
shall get no service out of them till
you are gone.'
do sit down and let US talk 1t over.
think oan prove to you that l am
not iirt"
"Well, go on"
Seriously, Mr.. Wheeler must be
headed off orr
Hell blow out his brains7"
"How could he do that when
"He hasn't any?'
"Listen to me. see way to settle
the matter with him
"And the rest of themT
Twill you please cease to interrupt
me?"
Proceed"
''When a girl is once engaged she is
let alone. Now. | wish to be en-
gagged"
''Oh, you do! For how longT'
THAT depends. My first object is to
get rid of this clamor. can't marry
all these young men, and if / engage
myself to one of them all the rest will
quarrel over the matter. Now, il EN-.
gage myself to their commanding off.
Ger 1t will be very different. No one
of them will have been preferred to
the other"
What brain you have in that pref.
ty head of yours. Are you sure they'll
not all mutiny"
How ridiculousw
I'm at your service But / warn
you you may find it harder to get rid
of me than Wheeler"
"Oh, I'm not afraid of that"
you mean, l suppose, that being an
old fogy I'll do for buffer and when |
no longer needed will be retired"
You go too fast 1t will be time
enough to talk about crossing a bridge
when we get to it"
Twill you announce our engage |
ment?'
There you are again-trying to cross
a bridge we haven't reached"
But thought you said you wished
to be engaged to me for protection |
What protection will it be If we keep
the engagement secret?'
what does an engagement in.
volve?"
kissing privileges"
"There is something that comes be
fore that"
what? Eth, oh. I sea proposal"
Certainly"
''Will you do me the honor to be my
wifeT
mot on such proposal as that"
"What kind Of a proposal would You
ifkeY'
Zone with some feeling in It."
Having received a great many OF
them, perhaps you will tell me this
most attractive way to proceed"
1.-THE sutton, sitting beside the lady
as you are sitting, takes her left hand
In his"
The colonel did as instructed, using
his right hand.
mot that hand; the otherv'
"Why so?"
"The right hand must be free"
The colonel used his left hand.
"Then he tells his story in his own
way" i
"You are the ioveliest little humbug
In the world. love yon desperately
and have loved you desperately ever
since you came to the garrison, but
never dreamed that you would consid-
er an old fellow like me for a moment. ,
when
"Now you see why you should keep {
your right hand free" she interrupted
as he placed it on her waist.
All ehSSC GCbh6 NhdlJS are Lidu
you.' !
That's the way l supposed you felt =,
about it. Now the privilege you spoke =
Of comes i'm i
The colonel took advantage of the {
privilege and the young lady remark d
ed that that was not essential to the 4
original plan. whereupon the colonel l
exclaimed. Original plan be hangedr'
The colonel was right about the mu- :
tiny, save that it was a social mutiny
only. Half dozen subalterns ground i
their teeth and wondered what girl
could see in a man old enough to be
ler father. However, the lady's en-
to the commandant served a
IS ample protection even from Mr.. a
though be was so badly hit v
hat he put in an application for trans ;
er.