The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-01
THE SOLDIER AND THE GIRL
BY RICHARD HARDING DAVIS

forts and sank the Spanish fleet" ON
the contrary. he was saying: When
she comes to join me II will We here |
Will first see her steamer. / will be
waiting with field glass on the end of
that wharf. No, ] will he out here in
shore boat waving my hat. And of al.
those along the rail, my heart will tell
me which Is she!"
Then a barefooted Filipino boy handed
him an unsigned cablegram. 1t read:
III l wrote thousand words I could
not make II easier for either of us.
am to marry Arthur Stedman IN Deem
| ber"
Lee was grateful for the fact that he
was not permitted to linger in Manila
Instead he was at once ordered up
country, where at a one troop post he
administered the affairs of "A somewhat
hectic province, and under the guidance
| or the local constabuary chased will o.
4 the wisp brigands. on a shelf in his
quarters he Placed the silver loving cup
and at night when the village slept he
would sit facing II, filling one pipe after
another, and through the smoke staring
at the evidence to the fact that once
Frances Gardner and he had been part
ners.
In these post -mortems ne saw nothing
morbid. With his present activities they
| IN no way interfered, and in thinking of
the days when they had been together.
In thinking Of what he had LOST, he
| found deep content. Another man, hav-
| ing lost the woman he loved, won d
| have tried to forget her and all she
meant to him. But Lee was far too
honest with himself to substitute other
| thoughts for those that were glorious.
that still thrilled him.
Often when in single file he led the
men through the forest he seemed again
to be back on Cape Cod picking his way
over their own lost road through the
wood. and he heard the beat of a horses
feet and the swish Of a skirt in the
dew And then a carbine would rattle
or horse would stumble and trooper
swear, and he was again in the sweat
ing jungle, where men intent upon his
life crouched in ambush.
She spared him the mockery Of we'd
| ding cards. but the announcement Of
the wedding came To him in a three
months old newspaper. Hoping they
would speak of her in their letters he
| kept up a somewhat one sided CORE
spondence with friends Of Mrs. Sted-
| III.
But for a year in none Of their letters
did her name appear, when mutual
friend did write OF her Lee understood
the silence.
From the first. the mutual friend
wrote, the life Of Mrs. Stedman and her
husband was thoroughly miserable
Stedman blamed her because she came
to him penniless The rich aunt, who
| had heartily hiGnnprA,aI ,,f H..
had spoken Of him so frankly that
Frances had quarrelled with her and
from her no longer would accept money.
In his anger at this Stedman showed
himself to Frances as he was. And
only two months after their marriage
she was further enlightened.
| An irate husband made him the CEN
trail figure in scandal that filled the
friends of Frances with disgust, and
that for her was an awakening cruel
and humiliating. Men no longer per-
mitted their womenfolk to sit to Sted-
man for a portrait and the need Of
money grew imperative He the more
blamed Frances for having quarrelled
with her aunt, told her it was for her
money he had married her, that she had
ruined his career and that she was To
/ blame for his ostraCism-a condition
that his own misconduct had brought
upon him.
Finally after twelve months of thl,
one morning he left a note saying Ia
no longer would allow her to be dra :
upon him and sailed for Europe Th,N
learned that in Paris he had returne,
to that life which before his marriag,
even in that easy going city had NAL,
him notorious.
And Frances" continued Lees cor
respondent, has left Boston and nos
lives in New York. She wouldn't lc
any of us help her. nor even know
where she Is. The last we heard of hri
she was in charge of the complaint DE