Betty at Fort Blizzard

in touch with the outside world for a few months. The mails came regularly and there were

lance at her reading showed that Anita was very much grown up. She still read piles of books and pamphlets concerning the Philippines and knew all about the stinging and creeping and crawling things that made l

any time. A mental and bodily torpor seemed to possess her, and she was never able to do more than walk feebly, supported by Mrs. McGillicuddy's strong arm, to a bench, sit there for an hour or two, and return to her own two rooms. Occasionally she asked if she should g

or her. Mrs. Lawrence, who appeared to notice little that went on around her, observed that Anita's eyes always sought the photograph

e lilac blossoms. From her lap a letter dropped and Anita picked it up; it was in Broussard's handwriting, which Anita knew. A vivid blush came into Anita's face; however silent she might be about Broussard, her eyes and lips were always eloquent when anything suggested him. Mrs. Lawrence made no comment on the letter and

those later days of winter, but the garden seemed to inspire him, as it did Anita. The girl went up to him and the two were in close conference concerning a bed of cowslips the sergeant was making

er thin, white skirt, as if it were an apron, a great mas

etter to me from Mr. Brou

enclosed in a letter to

he Col

rs of her skirt and the flowers fell to the floor. One moment she stood like a bird po

ll May afternoon heard her turn the key in

the blossoms, the Colonel w

thing compared with the jealousy of fatherhood. I have already made up my mind to be all graciousness and kindness

him of his child? That's what actuall

escue, "is to concentrate all of your love upon you

s objections to Broussard were purely fanciful and that he wou

ssard," said the Colonel. "Probably he looks u

th," replied Mrs. Fortescue, "Anita must study th

en I gave her the note?"

all the reply Mrs. Fortescue

ort and perfectly conventional, thanking her for writing to him for

laymate of mine in my boyhood and, although he has had hard

ng: "Although Gamechick is no longer mine, I shall always love the hors

little blue evening gown, Broussard's note came out with the handkerchief, and fell upon the floor. Her father and

e's your letter you

a letter from another man is very annoying to a father of Colonel Fortescue's type. And Anita was more tende

t the Commandant's house. In July Beverley Fortescue, named for the fine old Virginia Colonel, Mrs. Fortescue's grandfather, was to come home, in all the glory of his twenty-one years, wearing for the first time the splendid cavalry uniform instead of the grey and gold and black of a military cadet. More than that, he was to be assigned to duty at Fort Bli

half years. The mother was smiling and blushing like a girl. Behind her stood Kettle, his face shining as if it had been varnished, and next him was Sergeant McGillicuddy, wh

led up and Beverley stepped out, looking so handsome in his well-fitting civilian clothes,

lad we are to ha

, so lovely, so full of radiant life, that she seemed like an older Anita. Then Mrs. Fortescue raised the After-Clap and put him in Beverley's arms. Accustomed to much adulation, the After-Clap was, in

cried Beverley, whose experien

t, they became such chums on the spot that much difficulty was experienced in p

rised to find that Anita was grown up, like other girls of eighteen.

verley, "you're the hands

lonel

r age, t

lonel

tescue explained, "and so am I, so please, Bev

ing, although, of course, a boy could never be of so much value in a family as a girl, according to Colonel Fortescue's philosophy. With Mrs. Fortescue it was the other way. Dear as was Anita to her, the mother's heart was triumphant over her soldier son. As for the After-Clap, he frankly repudiated his whole domestic circle, except

her and ride with her, but she tre

arely turned thirty; but to the twenty-one-ye

her. Again I think she is the worst type of coquette-she treats all men alike. You remember my writing yo

en the letter the Colonel wrote me about it. I felt more sorry fo

It's perfectly disgusting the way young people now speak of their elders, who are barely middle-aged, as if they were centenarians. Well, I think, and your father thinks, that Anita

t call your father '

Fortescue

so young-a c

e. "This notion that Anita is a child and must be treated as such is r

re a born coquette, and you will be coquettis

sical laugh that was a part of her

ing to know what kind of a fellow he was. The Colonel spoke guardedly and damned Broussard with faint praise, as h

the garden, and the brother and sister walked up and down in the moonlight, and Anita, thinking she was keeping her secret, revealed everything to Beverley. Broussard was

d turned her long-lashe

said, "but you ought to have seen the way he gr

drawing-room, heard Beverley's laughter floating in

, thinking that his words had brought Lawrence to ruin and his unfortunate wife close to the boundaries of the far country. The chaplain took the Sergeant in hand, and so did the Colonel, but the Sergeant, who had a tender heart under his well-fitting uniform, was not a happy man. Anita went regularly to see Mrs. Lawrence, and as the young are appalled at the th

n this afternoon Anita was at her lesson in the great drawing-room, the red sunset pouring in through the long windows and flooding the room with crimson lights and purple

ing that touches the soul. It grew more of a miracle to Neroda than ever to watch Anita's slender bow-arm flashing back and forth, drawing out, with amazing force, the soul of the violin, her slender figure erect and poised high,

ot tired,

n the days of which you told me when you first came to America and would

were happy nights, because I was young and strong and full of hope and loved my fiddle. Sometimes, when I am leading the band in my fine uniform, I long to take the instrument away from one of the bandsmen and play

strong heart, my blood circulates well, and I am not afraid of the

r violin sharply with

sh you to talk Brahms, you shall talk Brahms; if I wish you to be sad, I will make you sa

who treated her violin as if it were a living thing, and whispered her sec

nights on the East Side, in New York, when I played for the workmen and working girls in their cheap finery, I went

en rising, the toe of her little slipper pointing skyward. She felt an unaccountable gaiety of heart that day. Why, she knew not, only that some strong current of emotion inspired her arms, he

iling. "I have seen it all. When you dance and play at the same tim

er hand, which trembled in his. Broussard's first thought was that Anita was grown into a woman. Anita's first glance at Broussard showed her tha

, and as they had evidently forgotten his existence, he slipped, witho

es; poetry became prose, music became silence. Broussard hastened to e

. Not finding you at the headquarters building, I ventured

e voice, which seemed to reduce Anita to the age of the After-Clap,

iced that Broussard looked haggard and worn, and his dark skin had turned darker. His face and manne

to come down, and I had a bad case. The doctors sent me home for three months, and when I go back-for I didn't mean to

and the flies and the beetles and the hideous swamps and sickening fore

Blizzard," Broussard continued, "I thou

rmission of the C. O. But Broussard felt that the Colonel saw through him and beyond hi

man, much less a man just out of jungle fever. You perhaps remember,

ed," corrected the Colonel, who

s face and saw there dee

ome back," cont

ing out his handkerchief, wiped away drops upon h

sard had something to tell that racked his soul. Bro

I gave him the money to come and came here with him. He wishes to give himself up and is

rence was returning volun

otel. If I ever saw a man crazy with remorse, it was Lawrence. His sobs and cries were terrible to

s nearly killed his wife; that's always the way with these faithful souls who do no wrong

eplied Broussard. "I wished to see y

k up a newspaper and glanced at it, to give Broussard a chance to r

you to take my word there was nothing wrong

swered Colonel Fortescue, "

d the cold drops from his forehead, and contin

wrence is my half-brother-the son of my mother. She was an angel on earth, and she is now an angel in Heaven

or Broussard then. The shame of confessing that his mother's s

ner," said Colonel Fortescue, who believed in G

d bowed

Thank God, she was taken away before dishonor fell upon her eldest son. She thought him dead, and so did I, until last January, when Lawrence told me, the night before I left this post, who he really was. When I met him in San Francisco I told him I would come

out his hand, and gra

he relationship a secret, and it shows that he understands the heigh

best to tell her. But she kept the secret wel

women in the world,"

an he had done for a long time. And his wife, who was born and bred to luxury, stood by my brother and tried to save him. She worked and slaved for him harder than

" said Colon

t neither she nor her child should ever suffer. I have sent her

piano, and other articles de luxe, which Broussard had once po

daughter and the other ladies at the post have done everything possible for her, and Sergeant McGillicuddy took the boy. McGillicuddy feels h

rote, or rather Miss F

hearts," said the Colonel, well

, to pass the window. The next moment a tap came at the door, and wh

d lost the dissipated, reckless look that dissipated and reckless men readily acquire. His hair and mustache, which a year before

the man, John Lawrence, who struck Sergean

d the Colonel, "I think it was

ion of deserting until I struck the Sergeant and got frightened. And I've been try

r arrest until nine o'clock tomorrow morning, when you will report at the headquart

sir," repl

imes too good for me," adde

out and Brouss

theless, I shall so consider it. As your Colonel, I advise and require that you should

d Broussard, a great loa

d officers, scarcely noticing where his steps led. As he passed the McGillicuddy quarters, the door opened, and little Ronald ran out bareheaded. He recognized Broussard, and Broussard, feeling strongly and strangely

ften smile in those days, s

fit," said the Sergeant. "The Philippines,

the right kind of a climate for me. By the way, the man Lawrence, who deserted in January, has come

ergeant's face clearly. There was a bench close by, on the edge of

yet it's the best news I ever heard in my life. You know, sir, it was some words of mine-and

ng down on the bench by the Sergeant. "Of cours

sob and a groan burs

to make a man's lot any harder, or to discourage him, and I never spoke an insultin' word to a soldier in my life, and I hope I'll be called to report to the Great Commander before I do. But I said something chaffi

ep feeling. The Sergeant little knew how g

he helped me a lot. I've been goin' to church on Sundays ever since I was married-to tell you the truth, sir, Missis McGillicuddy marched me off every Sunday without askin' me if

o had learned of it from the letter written by Anita at Mrs. Lawrence's request. T

didn't do. The chaplain told us we done too much, we was over-indulgent to the boy. But we taught him to do rig

, his cap once more in his hand, his head

back in the arm chair in which his wife had spent so many hours of helpless misery. His face was paler than ever and his lank hair lay damp upon his forehead. Mrs. Lawrence, who had been suffering from the cruel malady known

brothers," she cried and co

ether, all externally calm, but

roussard, "to go away before the court-ma

tragic but now brimming with light, full

c women are v

husband has told me so much, go

and Lawrence

"can you blame me if I act

kissed it; the marks of to

t be sent away,"

plied Mrs. Lawrence,

was a good place to recuperate and that the "old man," as the commanding officer is always called, was rather a decent fellow, and might let him stay, and then they plunged into garrison news and gossip. Broussard was thoroughly glad to be back once more at the handsome mess table, with the bright faces of the subalterns around him and the cheery talk and honest laug

m getting away," said Conway, "very judic

ven himself up anyway," B

en two soldiers, guarding him, his wife, dressed in black, as always, and with Mrs. McGillicuddy sitting near her, rose from her seat and too

d not Lawrence. Broussard was the second witness and merely told of Lawrence coming to him in San Francisco, saying he wished to get to Fort Blizzard and give hi

he railway station, hid in a freight car and got away. He worked his way East, and found employment as a miner and was earning good wages, but his conscience troubled him, especially after he rece

ary prison of Fort Blizzard. All the officers kept their eyes turned from the pale woman in black, sittin