Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

62 COLONEL EZRA TRAFTON. who will make you happy—as happy as I would have tried to make you.”’ Once more he pressed her unresisting hand to his lips; then he mounted his horse, and, waving his adieu, dashed off down the dusty road. She watched him out of sight; then leaning her head upon the fence, she wept, for her woman’s heart yearned for its lost love, CHAPTER XI. COLONEL EZRA TRAFTON. The ringing sound of a horse’s hoofs coming up- the road at length aroused her. Wiping her eyes, she saw that the new-comer wore . the well-known gray of the Confederate service. She quickly recognized the rider as Colonel ‘Traf- ton, her afhanced. Yes, it is true that all things come to him who waits. And Colonel Trafton, in the disguise of a gentle- man and an officer, had, backed by her parents’ ex- pressed wishes, won her reluctant acquiesence to their engagement. = Perhaps it was pique at her first love’s estrange- ment; perhaps it was—but, there; who shall pre- sume to fathom a woman S caprice? Of one thing we are sure—it was not love—that passion could not be duplicated while Royal Chet- wood lived. Her woman’s soul knew he was true to his first love; but her perversity sought to revenge the slight she suffered under. Foolish heart, how vain was the effort! The colonel rode up and halted his steed at the very spot vacated by the Federal officer. con ni ee. -— . comicbooks Cc C | a" - eae ha — eo