Nita was gazing out on the gorgeous effect of sunset light and shadow on the eastern cliffs and crags across the Hudson, a flush as vivid mantling her cheeks, her lip quivering. She was making valiant efforts to control herself before replying.
"I"m _not_ in love with him," she finally said.
"Perhaps not--yet. Surely I hope not, but it looked awfully like it was coming--and Nita, you simply mustn"t. You"ve got to marry money if I have to stand guard over you and see you do it--and you know you can this minute--if you"ll only listen."
The younger girl wheeled sharply, her eyes flashing. "Peggy, you promised me I shouldn"t hear that hateful thing again--at least not until we left here--and you"ve broken your word--twice. You----"
"It"s because I must. I can"t see you drifting--the way I did when, with your youth and--advantages you can pick and choose. Colonel Frost has mines and money all over the West, and he was your shadow at the seash.o.r.e, and all broken up--he told me--so when we came here. Paddy Latrobe is a beautiful boy without a penny--"
"His uncle--" began Nita feebly.
"His uncle had a sister to support besides Paddy"s mother. His pay as brigadier in the regular service is only fifty-five hundred. He _can"t_ have saved much of anything in the past, and he may last a dozen years yet--or more. Even if he does leave everything then to Latrobe, what"ll you do meantime? Don"t be a fool, Nita, because I was. I _had_ to be. It was that or nothing, and father was getting tired. _You_ heard how he talked."
The younger sister was still at the dressing-table diligently brushing her shining, curly tresses. She had regained her composure and was taking occasional furtive peeps at Mrs. Frank, now seated at the foot of the bed, busy with a b.u.t.tonhook and the adjustment of a pair of very dainty boots of white kid, whose b.u.t.tons gleamed like pearls. The mates to them, half a size smaller, peeped from the tray of Nita"s new trunk.
There came a footstep and a rap at the door. "See what it is, Nita, there"s a love--I don"t want to hop."
It was a card--a new arrival at the hotel.
"Gentleman said he"d wait in the parlor "m," said the bellboy, and vanished. Nita glanced at the card and instant trouble stood in her paling face. Silently Mrs. Garrison held out her hand, took the card, and one quick look. The b.u.t.tonhook dropped from her relaxed fingers. The card read:
"Mr. Gouverneur Prime."
For a second or two the sisters gazed at each other in silence.
At last the elder spoke: "In heaven"s name, what brings that absurd boy back here? I thought him safe in Europe."
CHAPTER IX.
One of the most charming writers of our day and generation has declared that "the truest blessing a girl can have" is "the ingenuous devotion of a young boy"s heart." Nine mothers in ten will probably take issue with the gifted author on that point, and though no longer a young girl in years whatever she might be in looks, Margaret Garrison would gladly have sent the waiting gentlemen to the right about, for, though he was only twenty, "Gov" Prime, as a junior at Columbia, had been ingenuously devoted to the little lady from the very first evening he saw her. A boy of frank, impulsive nature was "Gov"--a boy still in spite of the budding mustache, the twenty summers and the barely pa.s.sed "exam" that wound up the junior year and ent.i.tled him to sit with the seniors when the great university opened its doors in October. Studies he hated, but tennis, polo, cricket, riding and dancing were things he loved and excelled in.
Much of his boyhood had been spent at one of those healthy, hearty English schools where all that would cultivate physical and mental manhood was a.s.siduously practiced, and all that would militate against them was as rigorously "tabooed."
At the coming of his twentieth birthday that summer his father had handed him his check for five thousand dollars--the paternal expression of satisfaction that his boy had never smoked pipe, cigar or cigarette--and the same week "Gov" had carried off the blue ribbon with the racquet, and the second prize with the single sculls. It was during the "exams," the first week in June, when dropping in for five o"clock tea on some girls whom he had known for years, he was presented to this witching little creature whose name he didn"t even catch. "We met her away out at an army post in Wyoming when papa took us to California last year," was whispered to him, "and they entertained us so cordially, and of course we said if ever you come to New York you must be sure to let us know--and she did--but--" and there his informant paused, dubious. Other callers came in and it began to rain--a sudden, drenching shower, and the little stranger from the far West saw plainly enough that her hostesses, though presenting their friends after our cheery American fashion, were unable to show her further attention, and the newly presented--almost all women, said "so very pleased" but failed to look it, or otherwise to manifest their pleasure. She _couldn"t_ go in the rain. The butler had "phoned for a cab. She wouldn"t sit there alone and neglected. She deliberately signaled Mr. Prime. "The ladies are all busy," she said, with a charmingly appealing smile, "but I know you can tell me. I have to dress for dinner after I get home, and must be at One Hundred and Tenth Street at 7:30. How long will it take a carriage to drive me there? Oh, is that your society pin? Why, are _you_ still in college? Why, I thought----"
That cab was twenty-five minutes coming, and when it came Mr. Prime went with it and her, whom he had not left an instant from the moment of her question. Moreover, he discovered she was nervous about taking that carriage drive all alone away up to One Hundred and Tenth Street, yet what other way could a girl go in dinner dress. He left her at her door with a reluctantly given permission to return in an hour and escort her to the distant home of her friends and entertainers. He drove to the Waldorf and had a light dinner with a half pint of Hock, devoured her with his eyes as they drove rapidly northward, went to a Harlem theater while she dined and forgot him, and was at the carriage door when she came forth to be driven home. Seven hours or less "had done the business," so far as Gouverneur Prime was concerned.
It was the boy"s first wild infatuation--as mad, unreasoning, absurd, yet intense as was ever that of Arthur Pendennis for the lovely Fotheringay.
Margaret Garrison had never seen or known the like of it. She had fascinated others for a time, had kindled love, pa.s.sion and temporary devotion, but this--this was worship, and it was something so sweet to her jaded senses, something so rich and spontaneous that she gave herself up for a day or two to the delight of studying it. Here was a glorious young athlete whose eyes followed her every move and gesture, who hung about her in utter captivation, whose voice trembled and whose eyes implored, yet whose strong, brown, shapely hand never dared so much as touch hers, except when she extended it in greeting. He was to accompany his father and sister to Europe in a week, so what harm was there: He would forget all about it. He knew now she was married. He was presented to Nita, but had hardly a word and never a look for her when Margaret was near. He was dumb and miserable all the day they drove in the park and later dined at Delmonico"s with Colonel Frost. He was sick, even when mounted on his favorite English thoroughbred and scampering about the bridle path for peeps at the drives, when she was at the park again with that gray-haired reprobate, that money shark, Cashton--a Wall Street broker black-balled at every decent club in New York. Why should she go with him? He had been most kind, she said, in the advice and aid he had given her in the investment of her little fortune. She told the lie with downcast eyes and cheeks that burned, for most of that little fortune was already frittered away, and Cashton"s reports seemed to require many personal visits that had set tongues wagging at the hotel, so much frequented of the Army, where she had taken a room until Nita should have been graduated and they could go to the seash.o.r.e. She had promised to be at home to her boy adorer that very evening and to go with him to Daly"s, and he had secured the seats four days ahead. Poor "Gov" had trotted swiftly home from the park, striving to comfort himself over his bath and irreproachable evening clothes, that _there_, with her by his side, the wild jealousy of the day would vanish. Sharply on time he had sent up his card and listened, incredulous, to the reply: "Mrs. Garrison has not yet returned." He would wait, he said, and did wait, biting his nails, treading the floor, fuming in doubt and despair until nearly ten, when a carriage dashed up to the ladies" entrance and that vile Cashton handed her out, escorted her in and vanished. She came hurrying to her boy lover with both little hands outstretched, with a face deeply flushed and words of pleading and distress rushing from her lips. "Indeed I could not help it, Gov," she cried. "I told him of my engagement and said we must not go so far, but away at the north end something happened, I don"t know what, a wheel was bent and the harness wrenched by too short a turn on a stone post at a corner. Something had to be repaired. They said it wouldn"t take ten minutes, and he led me out and up to the piazza of that big hotel--you know, we saw it the day I drove with you--" ("He was a blackguard to take you there!" burst in Prime, the blood boiling in his veins.) "Then we waited and waited and he went to hurry them, and then he came back and said they had found more serious damages--that it would take an hour, and meantime dinner had been ordered and was served. He had telephoned to you and the butler had answered all right." "He"s a double-dyed liar!" raved "Gov," furiously. "And so what could I do, Gov?
The dinner was delicious, but I couldn"t eat a mouthful." (This time it wasn"t Cashton who lied). "I was worrying about you, and--and--about myself, too, Gov. I had set my heart on going with you. It was to be almost our last evening. Oh, if you only didn"t have to sail Sat.u.r.day, and could be here next week, you dear boy, you should have no cause for complaint! Won"t you try to forgive me?"
And, actually, tears stood in her eyes, as again she held out both hands.
They were the only people in the parlor, and in an instant, with quick, sudden, irresistible action he had clasped and drawn her to his breast, and though she hid her face and struggled, pa.s.sionate kisses were printed on her disheveled hair. It was the first time he had dared.
And then he did not sail Sat.u.r.day. Prime Senior was held by most important business. They gave up the Sat.u.r.day Cunarder and took the midweek White Star, and those four additional days riveted poor "Gov"s"
chains and left her well-nigh breathless with excitement. The strain had been intense. It was all she could do to make the boy try to behave in a rational way in the presence of others. When alone with her he raved. A fearful load was lifted from her spare little shoulders when the Teutonic sailed. Even Nita had worried and had seen her sister"s worry. Then no sooner did "Gov" reach Europe than he began writing impa.s.sioned letters by every steamer, but that wasn"t so bad. She had several masculine correspondents, some of whom wrote as often as Frank, but none of whom, to do her justice, got letters as often as he did, which, however, was saying little, for she hated writing. "Gov" was to have stayed abroad three months, piloting the pater and sister about the scenes so familiar to him, but they saw how nervous and unhappy he was. They knew he was writing constantly to some one. Mildred had long since divined that there was a girl at the bottom of it all, and longed and strove to find out who she was. Through the last of June and all through July he resolutely stood to his promise and did his best to be loving and brotherly to a loving and devoted sister and dutiful to a most indulgent father. But he grew white and worn and haggard, he who had been such a picture of rugged health, and, in her utter innocence and ignorance as to the being on whom her brother had lavished the wealth of his love, Mildred began to ask herself should she not urge her father to let "Gov" return to America. At last, one sweet July evening, late in the month, the brother and sister were wandering along the lovely sh.o.r.e of Lucerne. He had been unusually fitful, restless and moody all day. No letter had reached him in over a fortnight, and he was miserably unhappy. They stopped at a gra.s.sy bank that ran down to the rippling water"s edge, and she seated herself on a stone ledge, while in reckless abandonment he threw himself full length on the dewy gra.s.s. Instantly the last doubt vanished. Bending over him, her soft hand caressing his hair, she whispered: "Gov, dear boy, is it so very hard? Would you like to go to her at once?"
And the boy buried his face in her lap, twined his arms about her slender waist, and almost groaned aloud as he answered. "For pity"s sake help me if you can, Mildred, I"m almost mad."
Early in August the swiftest steamer of the line was splitting the Atlantic surges and driving hard for home, with "Gov" cursing her for a ca.n.a.l boat. The day after he reached New York he had traced and followed the White Sisters to West Point, and Margaret Garrison stared in mingled delight, triumph and dismay at the card in her hand. Delight that she could show these exclusive Pointers that the heir to one of the oldest and best names in Gotham"s Four Hundred was a slave to her beck and call.
Dismay to think of the scene that might occur through his jealousy when he saw the devoted attentions she received from so many men--officers, civilians and cadets. Old Cashton came up now as regularly as Sat.u.r.day night came around--and there were others. Margaret Garrison was more talked about than any woman in Orange County, yet, who could report anything of her beyond that she was a universal favorite, and danced, walked, possibly flirted with a dozen different cavaliers every day of her life? There were some few among her accusers, demure and most proper--even prudish--women, of whom, were the truth to be told, so little could not be said.
"Gov" Prime took the only kind of room to be had in the house, so full was it--a little seven by ten box on the office floor. He would have slept in the coal bin rather than leave her. He saw her go off to the hop looking radiant, glancing back over her shoulder and smiling sweetly at him. He rushed to his trunk, dragged out his evening clothes, and stood at the wall looking on until the last note of the last dance--he a noted German leader in the younger set and the best dancer of his years in Gotham. Not so much as a single spin had he, and he longed to show those tight-waisted, b.u.t.ton-bestrewed fellows in gray and white how little they really knew about dancing well as many of them appeared on the floor. His reward was tendered as the hop broke up. She came gliding to him with such witchery in her upraised face. "Now, sir, it is your turn. I couldn"t give you a dance, for my card was made out days ago, but Mr.
Latrobe was glad enough to get rid of taking me home. He is daft about Nita, and of course she _can"t_ let him take her to more than one hop a week. Mr. Stanton is her escort to-night."
Then she placed her little hand on his arm, and drew herself to his side, and when he would have followed the others, going straight across the broad plain to the lights at the hotel, turned him to the left. "I"m going to take you all the way round, sir," she said joyously. "Then we can be by ourselves at least ten minutes longer."
And so began the second period of Gouverneur Prime"s thralldom. A young civilian at the Point has few opportunities at any time, but when the lady of his love is a belle in the corps, he would much better take a long ocean voyage than be where he could hear and see, and live in daily torment. One comfort came to him when he could not be with Mrs. Garrison (who navely explained that "Gov" was such a dear boy and they were such stanch friends, real comrades, you know). He had early made the acquaintance of Pat Latrobe, and there was a bond of sympathy between them which was none the less strong because, on Prime"s side, it could neither be admitted nor alluded to--that they were desperately in love with the sisters, and it was not long before it began to dawn on Prime that pretty little Nita was playing a double game--that even while a.s.suring her guardian sister that she had only a mild interest in Latrobe, she was really losing or had lost her heart to him, and in every way in her power was striving to conceal the fact from Margaret, and yet meet her lover at hours when she thought it possible to do so without discovery. As the friendship strengthened between himself and Latrobe they began using him as Cupid"s postman, and many little notes and some big ones found their way to and from the Fourth Division of cadet barracks. Mrs. Frank was only moderately kind to her civilian adorer then, granting him only one dance at each hop, and going much with other men, but that dance was worth seeing. Prime"s was the only black "claw-hammer" in the room, and therefore conspicuous, and cadets--who know a good thing when they see it--and many a pretty girl partner, would draw aside to watch the perfection of their step and the exquisite ease with which they seemed to float through s.p.a.ce, circling and reversing and winding among the other dancers, he ever alert, watchful, quick as a cat and lithe and strong as a panther--she all yielding lissome airy grace.
That dance was "Gov" Prime"s reward, and almost only reward for hours of impatient waiting. Other women, charming and pretty and better women, would gladly have been his partners. Some two or three whom he met at the hotel even intimated as much. But not until Lady Garrison told him he must--to protect her from scandal--did he ask another to dance. At last came the end of the summer"s encampment, the return of the corps to barracks and studies, one blissful week in which he was enabled to spend several uninterrupted hours each day at her side, and then a cataclysm. A letter intended only for Nita"s hands fell into those of her sister. It was bulky. It was from Latrobe. She hesitated only a moment, then, with determination in her eyes, opened and read--all. Two days after Nita was whisked away to New York, and within another week, leaving two most disconsolate swains on the Hudson, the sisters, one of them bathed in tears, went spinning away to the West, where Frank Garrison was on duty at department headquarters. Prime was permitted to write once a fortnight (he sent a volume), and Latrobe forbidden, but already the poor boy owned a thick packet of precious missives, all breathing fond love and promising utter constancy though she had to wait for him for years. For a month Nita would hardly speak to her sister, but in October there were lovely drives, picnics and gayeties of all kinds. There were attractive young officers and a.s.siduous old ones, and among these latter was Frost, with his handsome gray mustache and distinguished bearing, and that air of conscious success and possession which some men know so well how to a.s.sume even when their chances are slimmer than my lady"s hand. The sisterly breach was healed before that beautiful month was over. Frost dined at the Garrison"s four times a week and drove Miss Nita behind his handsome bays every day or two. In November he asked a question. In December there was an announcement that called forth a score of congratulations around headquarters, and in January the wedding cards went all over the Union--some to West Point--but to Latrobe, who had been looking ill and anxious for six weeks, said his cla.s.smates, and falling off fearfully in his studies, said his professors, only a brief note inclosing his letters and begging for hers. At reveille next morning there was no captain to receive the report of roll call from the first sergeant of Company "B." "Where"s Latrobe?" sleepily asked the officer of the day of the cadet first lieutenant. "I don" know," was the answer, and to the amaze of Latrobe"s roommate, who had gone to bed and to sleep right after taps the night before, they found evidence that "Pat" had left the post. He had not even made down his bedding. His cadet uniforms were all there, but a suit of civilian clothes, usually in a snug package up the chimney, that had been used several times "running it" to the hotel after taps in August, was now, like its owner, missing. After three days" waiting and fruitless search, the superintendent wired Latrobe"s uncle and best friend, old General Drayton, and that was the last seen or heard of "Pat." In the spring and ahead of time his cla.s.s was graduated without him, for the war with Spain was on. In the spring an irate and long-tried father was upbraiding another only son for persistent failures at college. "Gov Prime will get the sack, not the sheepskin," prophesied his fellows. And then somehow, somewhere the father heard it was a married woman with whom his boy was so deeply in love, and there were bitter, bitter words on both sides--so bitter that when at last he flung himself out of his father"s study Gov Prime went straight to Mildred"s room, silently kissed her and walked out of the house. This was in April.
The next heard of him he had enlisted for the war and was gone to San Francisco with his regiment with the prospect of service in the Philippines ahead of him, but that was full four months after his disappearance. Thither, late in July the father followed, bringing Mildred with him and--the reader knows the rest.
CHAPTER X.
One of Colonel Frost"s consuming ambitions was to be the head of his department, with the rank of brigadier-general, but he had strong rivals, and knew it. Wealth he had in abundance. It was rank and power that he craved. Four men--all with better war records and more experience--stood between him and that coveted star, and two of the four were popular and beloved men. Frost was cold, selfish, intensely self-willed, indomitably persevering, and though "close-fisted," to the scale of a Scotch landlord as a rule, he would loose his purse strings and pay well for services he considered essential. When Frost had a consuming desire he let no money consideration stand in the way, and for Nita Terriss he stood ready to spend a small fortune. Everybody knew Mrs. Frank Garrison could never dress and adorn herself as she did on poor Frank Garrison"s pay, and when she appeared with a dazzling necklace and a superb new gown at the garrison ball not long after Frost and his shrinking bride left for their honeymoon, people looked at her and then at each other. Nita Terris was sold to "Jack" Frost was the verdict, and her shrewd elder sister was the dealer. Mrs. Frank knew what people were thinking and saying just as well as though they had said it to her, yet smiled sweetness and bliss on every side. Frankly she looked up into the faces of her sisters in arms: "I know you like my necklace. Isn"t it _lovely_? Colonel Frost"s wedding present, you know. He said I shouldn"t give Nita away without some recompense, and this is it."
But that could have been only a part of it, said the garrison. An honorarium in solid cash, it was believed, was far the greater portion of the consideration which the elder sister accepted for having successfully borne Nita away from the dangers and fascinations of the Point--having guarded her, drooping and languid, against the advances of good-looking soldier lads at headquarters, and finally having, by dint of hours of argument, persuasion and skill, delivered her into the arms of the elderly but well-preserved groom. All he demanded to know was that she was fancy free--that there was no previous attachment, and on this point Mrs. Frank had solemnly averred there was none. The child had had a foolish fancy for a cadet beau, but it amounted to absolutely nothing.
There had been no vows, no pledge, no promise of any kind, and she was actually free as air. So Frost was satisfied.
They made an odd-looking pair. Frost was "pony built" but st.u.r.dy, and Nita seemed like a fairy--indeed as unsubstantial as a wisp of vapor, as she came down the aisle on his arm. They were so far to the south on this honeymoon trip as almost to feel the shock and concussion when the Maine was blown to a ma.s.s of wreckage. They were in Washington when Congress determined on full satisfaction from Spain, and Colonel Frost was told his leave was cut short--that he must return to his station at once.
Going first to the Arlington and hurriedly entering the room, he almost stumbled over the body of his wife, lying close to the door in a swoon from which it took some time and the efforts of the house physician and the maids to restore her. Questioned later as to the cause she wept hysterically and wrung her hands. She didn"t know. She had gone to the door to answer a knock, and got dizzy and remembered nothing more. What became of the knocker? She didn"t know. Frost inquired at the office. A bellboy was found who said he had taken up a card in an envelope given him by a young feller who "seemed kind o" sick. Mrs. Frost took it and flopped," and a chambermaid ran in to her, and then hurried for the doctor. "What became of the letter or note or card?" asked Frost, with suspicion and jealousy in his heart. Two women, mistress and maid, and the bellboy swore they didn"t know, but the maid did know. With the quick intuition of her s.e.x and cla.s.s she had seen that there was or had been a young lover, and sympathy for Nita and a dislike for Frost, who gave no tips, prompted her to hide it until she could slip it safely into Nita"s hand; Nita who read, shuddered, tore it into minute sc.r.a.ps, and wept more, face downward on the bed. They had reached their winter station before the cable flashed the stirring tidings of Dewey"s great victory in Manila Bay, and within half a week came telegraphic orders for Colonel Frost to proceed at once to San Francisco, there to await instructions.
The first expedition was organizing when he arrived, his pallid little wife by his side, and there were his instructions to proceed to Manila as chief of his department--an independent position, and yet it was a horrid blow. But there was no recourse. Nita begged that she might stay with her sister. She could not bear the idea of going. Frost knew that no women could accompany the expedition, and, shipping his chest and desks by the transport, he had secured pa.s.sage for himself and wife to Hongkong on one of the splendid steamers of the English line from Vancouver, and so informed her. It dashed Nita"s last hope. They were occupying fine rooms at the Palace Hotel. The city was thronged with officers and rapidly arriving troops. Other army women, eager to accompany their husbands, were railing at the fate that separated them, and Nita had been forced to conceal the joy with which she heard their lamentations. But she had yet to learn how exacting Frost could be. It had never occurred to her that he could obtain permission to go except by transport. It had not seemed possible that he would take her with him. "You should have known," said he, "that even if I had had to go by transport, you would have gone by the Empress of India. It is only sixty hours from Manila to Hongkong, and I could have joined you soon after your arrival. As it is I shall see you safely established there--I have letters to certain prominent English people--then shall go over to join the fleet when it arrives in Manila Bay."
That night she wrote long and desperately to Margaret. "He swore he would follow me wherever we went until I granted him the interview. You know how he dogged me in Washington, followed me to Denver, and any moment he may address me here. F. will not let me return to you. He insists on my going to Hongkong, where he can occasionally join me. But Rollin holds those letters over me like a whip, and declares that he will give them into Frost"s hands unless I see him whenever he presents himself. You made me swear to Frost I never cared a straw for my darling that was. O G.o.d, how I loved him! and if these letters ever reach the man to whom you have sold me, he would treat me as he would a dog, even if he doesn"t kill me. Meg--Meg--you must help me for I live in terror."
And that she lived in terror was true, some women were quick to see.
Never would she go anywhere, even along the corridor, alone. If the colonel could not come to luncheon she was served in their rooms. If she had to go calling or shopping it was in a carriage and always with some army woman whom she could persuade to go with her.
One day, just before their intended departure, she drove out paying parting calls. It was quite late when the carriage drew up at the Market Street entrance, the nearest to their elevator. The door boy sprang across the sidewalk to open the carriage, and as she stepped wearily out, a tall young man, erect and slender, dressed in a dark traveling suit, fairly confronted her, raised his derby, and said: "You can give me ten minutes now, Mrs. Frost. Be good enough to take my arm."
Bowing her head she strove to dodge by, but it was useless. Again he confronted her. Piteously she looked up into his pale, stern face and clasped her hands. "Oh, Rollin," she cried, "give me my letters. I dare not--see you. Have mercy--" and down again she went in a senseless heap upon the stone. Colonel and Mrs. Frost did not sail with the Empress of India. Brain fever set in and for three weeks the patient never left the hotel. Frost made his wife"s dangerous illness the basis of an application to be relieved from the Manila detail, but, knowing well it would be late summer before the troops could be a.s.sembled there in sufficient force to occupy the city, and that his clerks and books had gone by transport with the second expedition in June, the War Department compromised on a permission to delay. By the time the fourth expedition was ready to start there was no further excuse; moreover, the doctors declared the sea voyage was just what Mrs. Frost needed, and again their stateroom was engaged by the Empress line, and, though weak and languid, Mrs. Frost was able to appear in the dining-room. Meanwhile a vast amount of work was saddled on the department to which Frost was attached, and daily he was called upon to aid the local officials or be in consultation with the commanding general. This would have left Mrs. Frost to the ministrations of her nurse alone, but for the loving kindness of army women in the hotel. They hovered about her room, taking turns in spending the afternoon with her, or the evening, for it was speedily apparent that she had a nervous dread of being left by herself, "or even with her husband," said the most observing. Already it had been whispered that despite his a.s.siduous care and devotion during her illness, something serious was amiss. Everybody had heard of the adventure which had preceded her alarming illness.
Everybody knew that she had been accosted and confronted by a strange young man, at sight of whom she had pleaded piteously a minute and then fainted dead away. By this time, too, there were or had been nearly a dozen of the graduating cla.s.s in town--cla.s.smates of Rollin Latrobe--their much-loved "Pat"--and speedily the story was told of his devotion to her when she was Nita Terriss, of their correspondence, of their engagement to be married on his graduation, which in strict confidence he had imparted to his roommate, who kept it inviolate until after her sudden union with Colonel Frost and poor "Pat"s" equally sudden disappearance. Everybody, Frost included, knew that the young man who had accosted her must be Latrobe, and Frost by this time knew that it must have been he who caused her shock at the Arlington. He raged in his jealous heart. He employed detectives to find the fellow, swearing he would have him arrested. He became morose and gloomy, for all the arts by which Mrs. Garrison persuaded him that Nita looked up to him with admiration and reverence that would speedily develop into wifely love were now proved to be machinations. He knew that Nita feared him, shrank from him and was very far from loving him, and he believed that despite her denials and fears and protestations she loved young Latrobe. He wrote angrily, reproachfully to Margaret, who, now that her fish was hooked, did not greatly exert herself to soothe or rea.s.sure him. That he could ever use violence to one so sweet and fragile as Nita she would not believe for an instant. Then the nurse, still retained, heard bitter words from the colonel as one morning she came to the door with Mrs. Frost"s breakfast, and while she paused, uncertain about entering at such a time, he rushed angrily forth and nearly collided with her. Mrs. Frost was in tears when the nurse finally entered, and the breakfast was left untouched.
Late that afternoon, just after the various trunks and boxes of the Frosts that were to go by the transport were packed and ready, and Mrs.
Frost, looking stronger at last, though still fragile, almost ethereal, was returning from a drive with one of her friends, the attention of the two ladies was drawn to a crowd gathering rapidly on the sidewalk not far from the Baldwin Hotel. There was no shouting, no commotion, nothing but the idle curiosity of men and boys, for a young soldier, a handsome, slender, dark-eyed, dark-complexioned fellow of twenty-one or two, had been arrested by a patrol and there they stood, the sergeant and his two soldiers fully armed and equipped, the hapless captive with his arms half filled with bundles, and over the heads of the little throng the ladies could see that he was pleading earnestly with his captors, and that the sergeant, though looking sympathetic and far from unkind, was shaking his head. Mrs. Frost, listless and a little fatigued, had witnessed too many such scenes in former days of garrison life to take any interest in the proceeding. "How stupid these people are!" she irritably exclaimed.
"Running like mad and blocking the streets to see a soldier arrested for absence from camp without a pa.s.s. Shan"t we drive on?"
"Oh--just one moment, please, Mrs. Frost. He has such a nice face--a gentleman"s face, and he seems so troubled. Do look at it!"
Languidly and with something very like a pout, Mrs. Frost turned her face again toward the sidewalk, but by this time the sergeant had linked an arm in that of the young soldier and had led him a pace or two away, so that his back was now toward the carriage. He was still pleading, and the crowd had begun to back him up, and was expostulating, too.
"Awe, take him where he says, sergeant, and let him prove it."