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Show 1 AUGUST M890. k thmkaI.T l,AKK TIMES. SATURDAY. --Z-- , ensconced in his quarters, and shook Mr. Nod's handthr iti womaniy leiwr i was so soy ana nmr was cozfly fore to would tet hi:a 'pjf grilling rmy Romance of WW By 6flPL RkES KING, U. S. ft. "How in hard luck?" asked a quiet looking man seated in a big arm chair, lowering for a moment the newspaper which he had been reading. "Well, through his father's ill luck on 'Change. You all know, of course, that Vincent was nearly busted before that corner went under last week." "I know this," was the calm reply, "that while he did stand for a few days on the 'ragged edge,' and while it may be that had that corner not broken when it did he would have been in sore straits, in some way he or his partner, Clark, came to taw with additional funds, and V him to come bften: he lij.i , men, he said, who could 8oV hh' M nppreciate-wh- oin do yon tv. nan Capt. Fred Lane. Aft he f tW papa spoke of him delighted o, vgvei three occasions. Will they ,. away, too, as soon as ho i8 rJ jt tainr" ?, ... , p "You dear, dear, extravult . thi Never have I had such exqJ n or such profusion of them. bave given your florist catte'i L0 of Nothing that came to tne r,m them. My birthday was the Lb quite a little fete in the famii,' . n had some lovely presents. ' j too, sent a beautiful basket of i,, it pleased me very much. 0f comrades to like me, and yet I J vonu did this on your account. Thonj otai so thoughtful and' delicate and Lfo fers to otir engagement I fa m0 knows it; and it seems better fta jaoi somehow. tlI "You did not answer my , about him, Fred. Didn't yon letter?" ' Among the letters that came ft a Queen City was one which b, in0 , tremulous superscription of the ; the firm of Vincent, Clark & Co. brief, but it gave Capt. Lane ati m, i gladness: )t i "It was your timely and ttoj aid that enabled us to recover j our losses. You alone came to our; and I fully appreciate the risk j ( It will never be forgotten. lSt "Clark will send draft for the acc am't, or deposit to your credit,! bei may direct I go to New York an lUt cagoin two or three days. Oo .if pects are flattering." tu- - that was before the crash, and wiien ho had no time to pay him any atten-tion. Of course, the conrin of Mr. Amos Withers was received with a great dual of bowing and scraping by Mr. Withers' friends ir hat honorable body. But all the same, I know your father will be glad to meet Mr. Noel now, and by all means bring him, if you feel dis-posed, What manner of look-ing man is he?" "A remarkably handsome man, moth-er," said Mabel at once; "one of the handsomest I ever saw, and he certainly made himself very entertaining and very jolly the night we sat together at din-ner at the Thornton'." "There's a great contrast physically between him and Lane," put ' in Regy. "Noel is such an elegantly built fellow so tall and fine looking. Lane would be almost undersized when standing be-side him. and is very much at a disad-vantage when they appear together, I should judge." A very bright and joyous party it was, seated around the heme like table of th Vincents that evening, and, as Eegy had predicted, Noel proved very entertaining and a most agreeable guest. While showing much deference to Mr. Vincent and attention to his good wife he never-theless managed to have a great deal to say about the regiment and its daring and perilous service on the frontier, and to throw in here and there many a pleas-- ; ant word about Opt. Lane and their long and intimate acquaintance, and be-fore dinner was over had won a warm place in Mabel Vincent's heart by the way in which he so frequently spoke of the man to whom she had plighted her troth. And that very evening, as Frederick Lane far out under the starlit sky of Arizona with his heart full of longing and love for her, and thinking only of her as he rode over the desolate plain, with the lights of old Fort Graham al-ready in view, Mabel Vincent, seated by Gordon Noel's side, was looking up into his handsome faco and listening to his animated voice between the acts of "Twelfth Night." had the consummate piucK to put up more at the very moment when it was believed that that syndicate was going to have everything their own way. So far from being badly bitten by that deal, it's my belief that Vincent, Clark & Co. came out of it with a very pretty penny to the good." "Well, of course, Harris, you must know more about it than I do. But you cannot be gladder than I am to hear that Vincent's status is so much better than we supposed. I'm glad on his account, I'm glad on Regy's account, and I'm particu-larly glad on Miss Mabel's account. And now I'm particularly1 chuckling over Billy Rossiter'B frame of mind when he hears the real truth of this matter. When he went after her to Rome last year, and everybody supposed that Vin-cent was worth a million, there's no doubt in the world that ho did his best to wi her, and that was whnt he was sent abroad by his father to do. But ho didn't win her then, for she strenuously denied any engagement when she came back here; yet it was supposed that if bo persevered his chances would be good. Why. he's not half a bad fellow, only ho can't marry so long as he is in his fa-ther's employ and dependent on him, un-less he marries according to his father's wishes; and tho old man called him off just as soon as he found out that Vin-cent wan on the verge of failure. Billy Rossiter has lost any chance that ho might have had in that quarter, for she'll timid, vet so full of faith and pride in him. Every ore at Graham remarked on the wonderful change for the better that had come over Lano since he treat east. Never had they seen him ic joy-;-s, to blitho in manner. He sceir.ed to walk on nir; his eyes beamed on every one; h;s tsce seemed "almost to have a halo round it," said Mrs. Nash, and neither she nor any woman in garrison had the faintest doubt as to the explana-tion cf it all. Love had wrought the change, and being loved had intensified and prolonged it. Every man, every wo-- 1 man in garrison was his friend, and the teppy fellow would gladly have taken dozensof themintohisconfidonoeand told Ihem all about it, and 'talked by the hour of her, But there were reasons, Mrs. Vincent j had said, why it was most desirable that there should be no announcement of the engagement as yet. What these were she did net explain to Mabel herself, but assured her that it was her father's wish as well. Lane had rushed to the great jewelry house of Van Loo & Laing, and the diamond solitaire that flashed among the leaven of the exquisite rosebud he smilingly handed her that night was one to make any woman gasp with delight, Could anything on earth be rich enough, pure enough, fair enough to lavish on her, his peerless queen? She had held forth her soft white hand and let him slip it on the engagement finger, and then bend the knee like knight of old and kiss it fervently. She reveled in it, rejoiced in it, but, heeding her mother's ad Wee, stowed it away where none could sse it, in the secret drawer of her desk, and Lane was per-fectly satisfied.- - "I will tell you the reason some day," Mrs. Vincent had said to him, "but not just now, for I might be doing wrong;" and ho had protested that she need never tell him. What cured he so long as Mabel's lore was his, and they understood each other as they did? And so, while people at Graham plied him with questions and insinuations and side remarks about tho "girl he loft behind him" in the east, he kept faith- -' fully to the agreement, and though the whole garrison knew he wrote to her every day and took long rides alone that he might think of her, doubtless, and though every one knew that those dainty missives that came so often for Capt. Lane were written by Miss Mabel Vin-- ; cent, never once did lie admit the exist-ence of an engagement never once un- - til long afterwards. The first real tidings that the Graham people had of her came in a letter from headquarters. Mrs. Riggs had had such u long, charming letter from Mr. Noel that she called in several of her cronies and read it all to them; and that very evening one of the number, unable to bear the burden of so much information, chifted it from her mental shoulders by writing it all to Mrs. Nash. Perhaps tho best Dlan will be to read the extract was giving all "ai time to the improve-ment of affairs about his troops bar-racks, kitchens aud stables, to drill and target practice, and to company duties generally. His days knew no relaxation from labor, from reveille until "retreat at sunset, and then came the delicious evenings in which he could write to her, and read a chapter or two of some fa-vorite work before going early to bed. After the first week he seldom left his house after 8 o'clock, and tho garrison, had therefore ample opportunity to di. cus his affairs. Soma color was lent to the storv of his. having lost money m speculation by a letter received from Cheyenne, written to the now major of the th infantry, who had recently joined by promotion from Fcrt Russell, near that thriving town. The writer said that Lane of the Eleventh cavalry had sold hia property there for fifteen thousand dollars about the end of June, and he had bought it for .twenty-fiv- e hundred only nine j'ears before. He could have got eighteen thousand just as well by waiting a few days, but he wanted tho money at once. No one, of courso, could ask the cap-tain any direct questions about his affairs of either heart or pocket, but Lane was puzzled to account for some of the re-marks that were made to him the inter-rogatories about the methods of specula-tion, the tentatives as to chances of "making a good thing" in that way, and the sharp and scrutinizing glance.3 that accompanied the queries. The sweet, sympathetic, manner, the inviting way in which the ladies apoko to him of his present loneliness and their hopes that soon he would bring to them a charming wife to share their exilo and bless his army home all this, too, seemed odd to him; but, as he had never been in love nor engagsd before, he did not know but that it was "always the way with them," and so let it pass. And then he was very happy in her letters. They were neither as frequent nor as long as his, but then sho had such a round of social duties; she was in such constant demand; there were visitors or parties every night, and endless calls and shopping tours with mother every day, aud she was really getting a little run down. The weather was oppressive-ly warm, and they longed to get away from the city and go to the mountains. It was only a day's ride to the lovely re-sorts in the Alleghanies, but papa was looking a littlo thin and worn again, and the doctors had said his heart was affec-tednot alarmingly or seriously, but mamma could not bear to leave him, and he declared it utterly impossible to be away from his business a singlo day. He and Mr. Clark were very hopeful over a now venture they had made, the nature of which she did not thoroughly understand. But let us take a peep at some of those early letters not at the answers to his eager questions, not at the 6hy words of maiden love that crept in here and there, but at those pag3S any one might read. SYNOPSIS OF THE "TWO SOLDIERS. Phaptkk 1. In n rerrnltliKC "(tl'O In (he "(Junen City" Limit. Ywi Lime. I.'. H. A., two letters one Informing him "f hid promotion to the rank of ciipt ilu, the other a brief note from Muliel Vincent. Chavtku a. Gordon Noel, ft nontenant ill I.ane'n orlrv regiment, einrnerts. throiiKh. wheedling the Wife of lil colonel, ltt helinr up-- ' pointed to the VBoancy raimnd ry Lane's pro motion. He le disliked hy hi brother oltlciTH, a lie lis In the pant everl times dodfjed active servlre In the Indlnu campaina. Chaptkk 3. Cant. Lue 1h deHpenitely In love with Mabel Vluoent. He prepare" to turn the recrnltiiiKOver to his stioccnior. Cbaptfh '4. Lieut. Noel arrives to tiike ehargeof therecrultlngomce. He in handsome and agreeable and aucoeeds in creatine tho lmprexulon that he ha been a very eallant officer and done brave Ben-Ic- e on the plains. It la discovered that a nlerlc named Talntor hae emberaled dome of the fundnot the recruiting office (foiiring Lane'x name) and decamped. Noel proteased an enthusiastic friendship for Lane. ' Chaptkk f. Lane writes to MalH-- r father, a'klng permission to pay his addresses tu her. This Id granted. Vincent id on the brink of financial disaster. Lane proffer hid services. OHAPrEKn. The transfer of the recruiting office Is made to Noel by Lane, who has orders to return to hid regiment In the west. Laue makes good the dollclt In the accounts out of his own pocket. Chaptwi 7. Lane furnished to Mr. Vincent the money which saves the latter from rain. Before Lane starts for the west Mabel promised to marry lilra. The engagement is to be kept secret at her parents' request. CHAPTER VTIL "What an awfully pretty girl that Miss Vincent Is, Amos!" said Mr. Noel one morning, as the cousins were quietly breakfasting together before going down town. "Pretty? yes," said Amos, doubtfully. "But look here, my boy; recollect that you want to think of something more than pretty in selecting wife while you are in here on this detail. Now, Mrs. Withers and I have been keapim? our eyes open, and our ears, too, for that matter; the fact Is, I always have both eyes and ears open travel with them that way, sloop with them that way. I would not be the man I am in the busi-ness world, Noel, if that weren't the case. And, pretty though Miss Vincent may be, she's not the girl for you to waste your time on." "But why not?" asked Noel. "They . have a magnificent home, and everything about it indicates wealth and refinement and culture; and there is no denying that she is one of the most attractive girls in society in this city; certainly I have seen none whom I have admired more." never look at him again." "Servo him right, if that be tho case. Any man who hasn't sense enough to stick to a girl who is bright and pretty as Mabel Vincent, rich or poor, deserves no lnck at all in this world. But that reminds mo, ('apt. Nonl, according to rumor and what the girls say in society and you know they generally know pretty much everything that is going on there is something more than a mere understanding between her and your predecessor here, the recruiting officer, Capt. Lane. Did ho say anything about it to your' "No, not n word. I think, though, that had there been anything in the story Lano would have let me know something about it, for we are very old and intimate friends. Did you say that that was Mr. Reginald Vincent who has just gone into the billiard room?" "Yos," answered Mr. Morri3, "that's he. Would you like to know him?" 'Very much indeed; and if you've nothing better to do come in and pre-sent me. Perhaps he will want to play a game of billiards, und if so I'm his man." CHAPTER IX. There was no one to receive Urn im ot bcl, and he wanted no me mt t August was close at hand. ( City ' 'society" had scattered in eve Bi rection. The mountains and the mi P were levying tribute on the pW '3 nockets of the ' 'biff men" on 'Chuti io know young people in society I venture to say that you can readily find out all alut it. These girls all know one another's secrets, and are generally pretty ready to tell them. That's the result of my experience." It was evident that Amos Withers' cousin was not to be neglected in the Queen City. Two parties at private houses, a reception at the clnb and three dinners were the invitations which he found awaiting him at his office. Half an hour was occupiod in acknowledging and accepting or declining, as happened to be the case, these evidences of hospi-tality; then, having no especial interest in the morning paper, his thoughts again reverted to what Mr. Withers had been telling him about Miss Vincent, and the possible relation lietween her and his regimental comrade. He had been very much impressed with her the night be-fore. Her beauty was of such a rare and radiant character, she was so genial and unaffected in her manner, so bright and winring,. with such an evident lik-ing for his society, that Mr. Noel had come away flattering himself that ho had made in this quarter a most fa-vorable impression. He had thought of her very much as he went home from the party of her interested face, as he talked or danced with her; and she danced de-lightfully, and was so good as to say that his step perfectly suited hers. He re-membered now, too, her remark that it was so delightful to dance with army of-ficers and graduates of the Point; they all seemed to feel so thoroughly at home on the floor. Noel was not a graduate of the Point by any means; but he saw no reason for tisenchanting her on that score. He was quite as good as any pf the West Pointers, In his own opinion, and in so-ciety was very much more at home than many of their number. As a dancer, he was looked upon in his regiment and throughout the cavalry as one of the most accomplished in the whole service. And all this interest and all this cordiali-ty he had accepted without hesitation as. a tribute to his own suporior qualifica-tions and attractiveness. It was there-fore with a feeling akin to pique that he heard of this possiblo engagement exist-ing between her and Capt. Lane. In all the Eleventh cavalry there was no man whom Gordon Noel feared aud possibly hated more than he did Capt. Lane. This arose from the fact that Lane as adjutant of the regiment had seen all the communications that passed from time to time relative to Noel's ab-sence from his command when his ser-vices were most needed and when any man of spirit would have taken every possible precaution to be with it. Ho knew how silent Lane had always been, and how thorough a custodian of regi-mental secrets he was considered. But all the same the mere fact that Lane knew all these circumstances so much to his disadvantage, and had seen all his lame and impotent exousos, had made him fear him as a possible enemy and hate him simply because ho stood in awe of him. No one, to watch Noel in society or in the presence of his brother officers, would suppose for a moment that ha looked upon Lane with other than feel-ings of the warmest regard and com-radeship. . It was only in his secret thoughts, which he admitted to no soul on earth, that Noel realized what w real feelings were towards a man who had never done him a wrong, but who had treated him on all occasions, public and private, with courtesy and consid-eration. For some reason or other the lieuten-ant felt restless and dissatisfied this morning. The atmosphere of the office was decidedly uncongenial. Ho was r. man who rarely read anything, and to whom letter writing was a bore. To be sure, he had little of it to do, for no man in the regiment had expressed a desire to hear from him. It was a hot, sultry day; the stylish white flannel suit in which he had arrayed his handsome self was wasting its elegance on the desert air of a bare and empty room, inntead of being seen in the boudoirs of beauty or the billiard rooms at the club. Busi-ness was slack; no recruits were com-ing in, and Mr. Noel could stand it no longer. A ring from hiB bell summoned the sergeant to the room. "There doesn't seem to be any likeli-hood of recruits coming in such a day as this, sergeant," said Mr. Noel. "I'm go-ing up to the club for a while; if any-body should come in, send one of ths inon up there for we ; I'll return at once. " And with that he took his straw hat and light cane and strolled leisurely up the street. His was a figure that many a man and more women would turn to look at more than once. Tall, slim, ele-gant in build, always dressed in excel-lent taste, Gordon Noel in any commun-ity would have been pronounced a re-markably presentable man. His face, as has been said, was very fine; his eyes dark and handsome, shaded by deep, thick lashes; his hair dark and waving; his mustache, dark and drooping, serv-ed only to enhance the brilliancy of the even white teeth that flashed underneath it iu his frequent smiles and joyous laughter. One would say, in looking at Noel, that he was a man of singularly sunny disposition; and so he was, and so they found him at the club; and so the loungers there hailod him with jovial Bhoute as he entered; for, though only n fortnight had elapsed since his arrival, and four days of that time he had been absent, giving his testimony before the court martial in New York harbor, he had nevertheless wou his way into the hearts of all the young follows around the club, and no more popular uian than Gordon Noel had ever come within the doors of "The Queen City." "What are you going to have, old man?" was the first question asked, and Nonl laughingly ordered a sherry cob-bler, saying the day was far too hot for anything stronger. "Who's that I just, saw going into the billiard room?" he asked. "That? That's Regy Vincent, Haven't you met him yet?" "Regy Vincent," said Noel. "Is he the brother of the Misg Vincent whom I met at the party last night?" "The very same," was the reply. "Mighty bright fellow, too, and a very jolly one; though he has been in hard YmaV.tkf loia which referred to Lane exactly as Mr. Noel wrote it: "By this time I presume Fred Lane is busily engaged with bis new troop. I oerved with them in the Sioux campaign and they never gave me any trouble at all. So, too, in the Geronimo chase a while ago, when Maj. Brace picked me out to go ahead by night from Carrizo's I asked for a detachment from D troop, and the men seemed to appreciate it. I knew they would follow wherever I would lead, and would stand by me through thick and thin. If Lano starts in right I've no doubt they will do just as well for him; but I expect he is feel-ing mighty blue at having to rejoin just now. You know I've always been a warm friend of his, and it hurt me to see him so unwilling to go back. No one seemed to know him very well in society, and it's very queer, for this was his old home and I was never more delight-fully welcomed anywhere; the people are charming. But Lane had held him-self aloof a good deal, and fellows at the ' club say he didn't 'run with the right set.' Then, if all accounts be true, he had had hard luck in several ways. I'm told that he lost money in a big wheat speculation, and everybody says he totally lost his heart. I tell you this in confidence because I know you are a friend of his as indeed you are of all in the dear old regiment but he was much embarrassed when it came to turn-ing over the funds. There was quite a heavy shortage, which he had to make up at a time when it was probably most inconvenient. As to the other loss, it isn't to be wondered at. She is a beau-tiful and most charming girl, and many a man, I fancy, has laid his heart at her feet. It is said, however, that Lane's loss is the heavier in this case because well, I fear it will come to nothing. A young lady told me yesterday that there was something back of it all that she, Miss Vincent, was deeply in love with a Mr. Rossi ter, of New York, and had been for over a year, and they were to have been married this coming Septem-ber, but that the gentleman (?) learned that her father had been nearly swamped in speculation and had not a penny to give her. My informant went to school with Miss Vincent and knows her inti-mately, and she says that Mr. Rossiter imply threw her over a short time ago, and that it was through pique and exas-peration and to hide her heartbreak from the world that Mabel Vincent began to show such pleasure in Lane's devotions. She led him on, so her lady friends sav: He wrote long letters to her. , Only a short distance from the Ari-zona border, with the blue range of the Santa Ca tarina shutting out the sunset skies, with sand and cactus and Spanish bayonet on every side, the old post of Fort Graham stood in the desert like a mud colored oasis.: All the quarters, all the store houses, stables, corrals and barracks were built of the native adobe; and though whitewash had been liber-ally applied, especially about the homes of the officers, and the long Venetian blinds at their front windows had been painted the coolest of deep greens, and clear running water sparkled through the acequias that bordered the parade, it could not be denied that at its best Graham was an arid and forbidden sta-tion, so far as one could judge by appearances. Trees, verdure, turf were items almost unknown within a day'a inarch of the flag staff; but in the old times when the Navajoeg were the terror of the wide south-west, and even the Comanches sometimes carried their raids across the Rio Bravo del Norte the Rio Grande of today the post had been "located" where it might afford protection to the "Forty-Niners- " and to the pioneers of the pnuries; the trail led past its very gates, and many a time and oft the miner and the emigrant thanked God and the general govern-ment that the old fort was placed just where it was, for Indian pursuers drew rein when once in sight of its dingy walls; and so from year to year for more than thrice a decade the flag was raised at sunrise, the post was always garri-soned, and now, with the Southern Pa-cific piercing the range but a short dis-tance below, and landing stores and for-age at the quartermaster's depot within four miles of the corrals, it became easier to maintain a force of cavalry at Gra-ham; and one of the troops there sta-tioned was Lane's new command, the re-lict of the late lamented Curran, "the Devil's own D." An easy going old dragoon was Cur-ran, and for years before his retirement it was an open secret that his first ser-geant "ran the troop" to suit himself and that the captain never permitted his sub-alterns to interfere. A more independ-ent, and occasionally drunken lot of troopers were rarely gath- - "Tuesday night. "Such a delightful german as we had last night at tha Prendergasts'! Capt. Noel led I have to call him captain, for every one does here, and if I say 'Mr.' they want to know why, and it is em-barrassing to explain how I know. He leads remarkably well, anf I was very proud of 'our regiment,' sir, when listen-ing to all the nice things said about him. How I wished for a certain other cavalry captain, now so many cruel miles awayl Mr. Noel took me out often and in-deed I was a decided belle and he told me that he had to lead with Miss Pren-dergas- t, but would so much rather dance with me. "It is almost settled that we go away in August for the entire month. Dr. Post says mother must go, and that father ought to go. Of course I go with mamma. Deer Park will doubtless be the favored spot. I wish August were here; I wish you were here; I wishoh, so many things! Your letters are such a delight to me. 1 wonder if other girls have anything like them. Yes, you shall have the picture on my birthday; but mind, sir, you are to tako the ut-most care of it, or the original will feel neglected." "Friday night. "So many interruptions today, dear Fred! You see what an incoherent thing this is thus far, and now I'm tired out. Wo had a charming time at the Wood-row- s' dinner last evening. The day had been hot, but their table was set ou the lawn under a canopy, and, the walls being raised, we had a delightful breeze from the river. Their place is one of the finest on the heights. I do so wish you could have seen it. Capt. Noel took mo in, and was bright and jolly and full of anecdote. Everybody ljkes him, and I like him mainly because he is such a loyal friend of yours. . Ho talks so much of yon and of all the dangers you have shared in common; and you know how interesting all this must be to me. Sometimes 1 wonder that you had so little to say about h you never did talk much about the regiment and never would talk much about yourself. Wednesday evening wo had a little theatre party. Regy got it up, and we just filled two adjoining logos. Capt. Noel was Fanny Holton's escort, but he talked most pf the time with me a thing that my escort, Mr. Forbes, did not seem to like; but, as he couldn't talk, and Mr. Noel would, what could I do?" '. "Sunday evening. "It is late and I ought to be asleep, but the last caller has just gone, and to-morrow there may be no timo to write at all, and you are Buch an exacting, tyrannical, dear old boy that Weil, there, now, let me tell you of the day. Yon say anything and everything that 1 say or do is of ireret. So. to begin I with, yesterday I had a headache, due, 1 fear, to tho late supper Regy gave us at" the club after the theatre. Fanny Hol-to- n came to take me for a drive, but I did not feel like going, and begged off. Then she told me that Capt, Noel was in the carriage waiting, and that he would be so disappointed. Mother came in and said the air would do me good; and so we went, and I came back feeling so much brighter. Mr. Noel was very amusing and kept us laughing all tho time. Coming home Fanny got out at her house, as she had to dress for dinner, but told the coachman to drive me home and Mr. Noel to the club. He began talking of you the moment she disap-peared, and said he so hoped you were going V) write regularly to him. Are you? He seems so fond of you; but I do not wonder at that. i "This morning we went to church, and afterwards Mr. Noel joined and walked home with us, and papa begged hun to come into luncheon, which he did. You dear fellow! what have you done to my beloved old daddy, that be , is so ardent an admirer of yours? He on business of every conceiTaWe Blinds and shutters were closed at a of hospitable mansions in the m I streets of the old city, and even in !" elegant villas that crowned the snno n ing heights. The snn glare at w 5 was so intense that no man wm M venturing forth without a huge mis' ' of some kind, and even within ft o cred precincts of the club, where b a awnings hung on every side and j leaf fans were in constant motion, men strolled into luncheon in ste lightest flannel or pongee, with ro! collars and infinitesimal neckties. E one who could leave town had long gone; and yet the Vincents top Each day seemed to add to the nu in the mother's eyes as she watchec husband's aging face. HehadreS from a business trip of ten days looking hopeful and buoyaat, ami gone to the office the followiag nffl with light step and cheery denw but came home long after the it hour listless and dispirited- -a ft headache, he said, but the wife t that it was far more than head or ache. The family physician took siou to warn Mr. Vincent that ta j doing himself grievous wrong--1' i health imperatively demanded rat change of scene. Vincent looted good old doctor's face with a w dumb misery in his eyes, and W swered, "I will I will in a weel I cannot quit my post just now. 0 is taking his vacation, Whenher I'll go." And until he could cW them Mrs. Vincent refused to W and yet she began to urge that should start now. What was to her going at once and joininftbe' rows at Deer pork?, Claries and t nor Woodrow were always such W of hers. But Mabel begged tW might stay until both papa and s could go too; she could not be there without them, or at lat'! mother; and Mrs. Vincent co the words in which to frame the of her greatest apprehension. The one man whom the heat nT erless to subdue was Gordon Soft the most immaculate and heconfflJ tnmes ol white or straw color to lal officia- - would saunter into j'( at noontide, looking provoking and comfortable, and, as he expre8 "without having turned a hair. "Hot!" he would say. "Call tW Why. bless your hearte, fellows, ought to live in Arizona awhile-I'v-come in sometimes from through the Gila desert andrnsntf cold cream to plaster on wy cheeks: it would all be melted, of but when I clapped it.on it wonW-lik-so much lard in a frying Pk down at Fort Yuma our liens law boiled eggs from June to October- ; then his eves would twinkle w1 and he would burv his dark ffl'T the cracked Ice of his julep with" relish. '( j "I sav, Queried Mr. Morns or chum, Terrji Jr.. one langwda". after Noel llad jauntily stroll "don't you eiivy a feller who can life like that?)' "Never sa anything like n2. the younger. ( "One would PP0. after being a Have all mawning beastly works I ought to enjoy recreation; bat I can't, you know- "Queer diw ks, those army ' i Gad! this lov making by P?c gets me this' sort of Miles courtship business. She's prettier,"1 than the original Priscilla," "How do yiu mean?" qM1. Terry, vagnaly;. He had been i up under the thumb of hie elder Dtt and from the outset had been gi " understand thait if he expected ; in tho profits fat, must learn the ww ( There had been ,10 college fTfj 1 New Encland founds were sealed ' And so it happened that that very morning Gordon Noel was presented to Reginald Vincent, and when Regy went home to luncheon he spoke enthusias-tically of his new found acquaintance, whom bo pronounced to be one of the most delightful fellows he had ever met anywhere, and who was such a warm and devoted friend of Capt. Lane. "I want, if I meet him this afternoon, as I probably shall, to bring him back to dinner with me. What say you, mother? just informally." "Don't you-thin- it would be better to wait a day or two, and have a little din-ner, and invite a few friends to meet him?" asked Mrs. Vincent. "Your fath-er, perhaps, would like to be consulted in the matter. I've no doubt that he would like to do something to show attention to any friend of Capt. Lane. What do you think, Mabel?" "I vote for both." replied that young woman, with much ulacrity. "I have met Mr. Noel twice," "Capt. Noel, dear." suid Rcgv, "Cupt. Noel."' "He is not a captain yet, Reginald; 1 happen to know from tho regimental roster; I have a copy upstairs that Capt, Laue very kindly left me." And here a decided flush stole over the fair cheeks of tho young lady. "I learned a good deal about the officers of the regiment from Mr. Lane Capt. Lane while he was here. Mr. Noel ranks second among the lieutenants of the regiment. As Capt. Lano said, he is so very near his captaincy that perhaps ho accepts the ti-tle that you all give him at the club as only a trifle premat ure.'' "Well, captain or lieutenant, it doesn't make any difference," said Regy, im-pulsively; "he's a mighty good fellow, and a mighty good friend of your friend Capt. Lano, and if you have no objection, mother, I'll bring him around to dinner t, and then perhaps we might go to the theatre afterward. I'm very sure that Capt. Noel will enjoy it. Fact is, he enjoys everything. Everybody in the club is perfectly delighted with him. You ought to hear him sing an Irish song or tell a French story! Til try and get him started when he comes here. He's a wonderful mimic; and he's so full of in-formation about their Bervice on tho frontier. Now, Lane so seldom spoke of anything of the kind; but Noel will talk for hours at a time about the wonderful country through which they have scouted aud fought, and all tliat they have been through in their campaigns. By Jove! but that fellow has seen a lot of hard service, and has been" through some hairbreadth escapes!" "Who?" inquired Mrs. Vincent; 2apt. Lane or Mr. Noel?" "Noel, of course Noel I'm speaking of. Lane, no doubt, saw a great deatff aer-vi-with the regiment; but Noel says h was adjutant so much of the time, aad on other staff duty, while he (Noel Wtfe almost incessantly scouting, hunting after various Indian parties, and being on the warpath, as he laughingly ex-presses it." "Does he mean that Capt. Lane didn't see much actual service there?" asked Miss Mabel, with heightened color. "Oh, I don't know that he means that. Don't understand me as saying for a mo-ment that Noel disparages Lane's ser-vices; on the contrary, be never speaks of him except with the most enthusiastic regard. Neither does he boast at all of his own service; only you can't help see-ing, in the modest, offhand way in which he speaks of his campaigning what a deal of hardship and danger he has encountered, for the simple reason that he was with the command that had to go through it all." "Your father tells me," said Mrs. Vin-cent, "that he met him one day on "Chauee when Mr. .Withers broughikini 37iat very nwrnlixg Gordon Noel wat pre-tente-d to Reynold Vincent. "That is all very true, perhaps," was the reply; "but her father was very bad-ly bitten during that wheat corner last month, and in fact he has been losing heavily for the last two years. Warden, who is his broker on 'Change, let it leak out in more ways than one; and that wife of Warden is a regular scandal monger she can't help talking, and every thing she manages to extract from him in the way of information goes broad-cast over the entire city. Of course, when the corner broke, as it did, old Vincent managed te pull out of it with-out absolute loss of his homestead and his entire business. But the rally came only in the nick of time. I am told that Warden has said that if wheat had gone up one cent higher it would have knocked Vincent out of time; he never could have come to again. Gordon Nool, we have another plan for you. Wait until Ned Terry's sister gets back from the east; between her and her brother they have just about as much money invested in the best paying business in this town as any people that I can possibly name. She's a belle; she's just as pretty as Miss Vincent. She isn't ao smart, perhaps, but she is a woman worth cultivating. Now, hold your horses. Where did you meet her, by the way?" "I first met her at the Thorntons' dinner party. She was there with Capt. Lane, and some other young people whom I had not previously met." "Oh, yes; that reminds me. It seems to me I have heard once or twice that your friend Lane was very much Binitten in that quarter. Now, you'd much better let him carry off Miss Vincent, if he can. She would suit his modest views of life very well. But I don't believe the girl has a penny to her fortune: at least she certainly won't if Vincent has no more luck in the future than he has had in the last year." "I took her down to dinner," said Noel, thoughtfully, "and I remember that she talked a good deal about the army, and asked a great many questions about the cavalry. Now that you speak of it, I noticed that Lone, who sat on the pposite side of the table, didn't seem to be particularly interested in the lady whom he was escorting, although, of course, he had to be civil and tried to keep up a conversation, but every nw and then I would catch him looking at us, and particularly at her. But she looked so pretty that I didn't wonder at it." "When did yon next see her?" said Withers. "Only last night. You know, I was saliid away almost immediately after the Thornton affair, and had to go on to New York on the court martial, where I was summoned as a witness, then only got back in time for the party last night. That was my second meeting with her, and by this time Lano had gone out to join the regiment I didn't even have a chance to say good-b-y to him. Do you think, really, that he was smitten in that quarter?" "That's what I certainly heard," said Withers: "and as goon. as j-o-u set. to ered in one such organization, and while steady and reliable men on getting their discharges at the end of their term of enlistment would refuse to "take on" again in D troop, but would go over to Capt. Breese or perhaps to a company at another stciion, all the scamps and characters in the regiment would drift over into "D" and be welcomed by he choice spirits therein assembled. And this was the gang that Capt, Lane was now expected to bring up with a round turn and transform into dutiful soldiers. Obedient to the colonel's be-hest, he had stopped over a couple of days at headquarters, had had a most cordial greeting from every officer at the post, had called on all the ladies not omitting his fair defamera and then had hastened on to Graham and his new and trying duties. Every day, as he was whirled farther from the home of her whom he so de-votedly loved, he wrote long letters to her, filled with only lovers know what all. And his heart leaped with joy that topmost in the little packet of letters awaiting him at the adjutant's office j when he reached h:s post was a dainty billet addressed to him in her beloved j hand. Until he could get his quarters ' in habitable condition the new troop j' commander was the guest of Capt. and Mrs. Nash; and he could hardly wait for i the close of that amiable woman's wel-coming address to reach his room and devour every word of that most precious missive. She had written bless her! the very dy after he left, and a sweet. and now Mr. Roesiter has found out that old Vincent was sharper and shrewder than any one supposed, and made instead of losing a pile, and now he is suing to be taken back, and they say that she is so much in love with the fellow that tha thances are all in his favor. This is why I feel such sorrow and anxiety for Lane. "Well, I led the german at a lovely party at the Prendergasts' last night. Miss Vincent was there, looking like a peach blossom, and we danced together a great deal. When it came time to break up I believe half the people in the rooms came to say good night to me and to tell me they had never seen so delight- ful a german 'everything so depends on the leader.' I have invitations for some-thing or other for jevery night for the next fortnight; and yet I so often long for the old regiment and the true friends I had to leave. It did me a world of good last night to meet old Col. Gray, of the retired list, whose home is here, but he commanded the th infantry in the Wonx campaign, and when he saw me he threw his arms around my neck and hugged me before the whole throng of people. Give my love to our chief, al-ways, and believe me, dear, true friend of mine. Yours, most affectionately, "Gordon Noel." Condensed, edited by feminine hands, and accented bore and there as suited the writer's mood, this was the letter which formed the basis of the one re-ceived by Mrs. Nash. Lane bv this time |