Trooper Tales — page 126: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

II4 A Soldier of Misfortune. and where there are few white people, and therefore few conventionalities. It was hardly a question of color, for Euphrasie was not dark. Indeed, had she possessed the power to sell the richness and softness from her skin, she would have realized enoug’n to live luxuriously for life. But Eu- phrasie wore no hat, only a shawl. Her gowns were very pretty for her own summer land, but they would not have suited an American woman. She spoke little English. But a thousand times worse than anything else —she was the wife of a common enlisted man! And there were wives of commissioned officers on the trans- port ! Everything was done so quickly in San Juan. A ship bound for the States was in the harbor. Before Duffie had cashed his finals, the sailing flag was hoisted. He had barely time to get his wife on board. He realized vaguely that Euphrasie needed woolen clothing and much of it, before leaving a tropical island for a land of winter. But how was he, who knew nothing which pertained not to an enlisted man’s life, supposed to realize in a moment that there are such things as officers’ wives and conven- tionalities on a transport? Euphrasie was a timid maiden. So many soldiers frightened her, and, worse than that, she perceived that her husband was uneasy, too. His knowledge of Spanish fled from him. And the American ladies up on the pure white bridge, and on the saloon deck, where none but the shoulder- Eomicbooks (Co)