The Last Shot

ow, suggested a girlhood in the Bulwer Lytton and Octave Feuillet age, when darkened rooms were favored for the complexion and it was the fashion for gentlewomen t

Steiner when they brought Charles home looking so white-and it was the very day set for their wedding! And I remember all the wounded g

're very blue to-

ses before. We-" Lanst

nd I remember that young private, only a boy, who lay crumpled up on the steps where he fell. I bandaged him myself and helped to make his position easier. Yes

smell of roses was so sweet and he felt so f

as seeing the young private and spatters of blood on the terrace.

ay! And now we are to have it all over again. The young men must have their turn. They will not be satisfied by the experience of their fathers. Yes, all over again; still more horrible-and it was

zed-serum age equal to

-fact, automatic gun-reco

me to the class some morning, you who have seen and f

your father was an officer, as your grandfather was, too. I am sure he wo

f his ears sturdy defiance of that parvenu Bonaparte and of his own younger brother who had fallen fighting for Bonaparte-would have frowned on the descendant who had filled the house with many guests and paid the bills with mortgages in the ebbing tide of the family fortunes. But Mrs. Galland saw only a hero. She shared h

sars' uniform! How frightened I was and hew proud of his fine bravado when I heard him and a number of fellow o

at what was good form in the days of the beau sabreur was consid

r on your cheek, how tanned and strong your hands were and how white mine as you held them so f

of falling far!" s

h of a jar!"

flushing. "Do you think that I fainted purposely? I woul

d dying!" said Marta thoughtfully, wonderingly, leani

ints at all these days. They're all so businesslike," said M

be war, which was a great match-maker forty years ago. The thought of a lover in danger had precipitated wa

of bravery. "I believe it was in an English novel that I read that any woman without a hump can get any man

s. Galland. In her tone w

behalf, if it is masculine. By the time I'm thirty she will be rea

relip! Marta, will y

we find the right man, you hold him whi

ey happened to be this time-while Colonel Lanstron was a little flushed and ill at ease. She had a truly silvery laugh-the kind

re was victorious and the fell fast asleep. Marta, grown restless with impatience, suggested to Lanstron that they stroll in the garden, an

With literal brevity she told how she had proved him to be a man of most sensitive hearing. "I didn't let him know that

not deaf!" La

ssages to him and I have been learning the deaf-

o, Marta!"

spy?" s

, Marta!" He found words coming with difficulty i

n the welcome friend!" she exclaimed. "A spy on what-on my mother, on Minna, on me, on

etrating wonder that found him guilty of such a horrible part. Those eyes would have confused Partow himself with the steady, welling i

r with you when you

of shaking throb of his whole body

set to do. My God, Marta! I cease to be natural and human. I am a machine. I keep thinking, what if war comes and some error of mine let the enemy know where to strike the blow of victory; or if t

on him quickly, h

nk of that-

hy shou

side!" she excla

d I was curious to see if he had sustained power enough to keep you from discovering his simulation. I did not think he

not, should I?" she replied,