Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

A SOLDIER’S HONOR. pany gathered within the houge, and plainly visible to him‘through the parted curtains at the windows. The prince did not especiafly impress him, being of that pattern of Chinaman which Darwin had described as “ skinny and dried up,” and like the gentlemen of his suite, attired in American evening dress, with only a broad, yellow ribbon to indicate his rank. The princess and her ladies in attend- ance, on the contrary, were in native cos- tume, and proved far more satisfying to the critical eye of the observer on the walk. Indeed, Mosely always a suscep- tible youth, might readily have lost his heart to, the delicate little, ivory-tinted lady who looked as if she might have stepped out of a fan, had it not been for the surpassing charms of one of her fair associates. This girl shawed scarcely a trace of the Mongolian characteristics. Her brows were arched, not slanting, her complexion as exquisite as the flush upon a briar- rose; her profile chiseled like a Hebe’s. Her eyes were dark, and met those of any one who spoke to her openly and frankly, not with the shrinking deference of the Oriental woman. In short, she was a girl of to-day, love- ly, laughing, wholesome, unaffected. She wore a short jacket of brocaded, Ivory silk, fastened with buttons of carved jade and caught by curiously set pearl pins, and a skirt of heavy satin of the same shade reaching hardly to the ankle, dis- playing underneath the gold-fringed pan- taloons and tiny, embroidered slippers. Her hair, worn low over her ears and under a net of gems—only served to ac- centuate, with its hint of an unchanging fashion, the difference between her and her companions. ‘‘ Some ‘ femme,’ that,” muttered Kerr, slowing up in his stride to gaze upon the entrancing vision. ‘I guess it would go bad to have her up here in the summer- time, and take her for a stroll around ‘ flirtation ’—not.” He halted suddenly, a jealous frown 433 creasing his features as he saw her talk- ing and smiling up into the face of the despised Crosby. ‘“ What can she see in that rotten quill?” he snarled disgustedly, as the two sauntered away together out of sight, and he resumed his solitary pacing. Eleven o’clock came, and, with the band striking up ‘“ The Star. Spangled Banner,” the company inside formed for a gala entry into the ballroom, the colonel and his royal guest leading the van. Outside, the lonely sentry fairly dragged his feet, striving not to keep step to the music, and choking down the lump which the familiar refrain brought to his throat; for rail as he would at the mis- eries of cadet life, there was bitterness in his heart at the thought of leaving the gray old academy with its many fond as- sociations, and he was more than loath to give up the military career to which he had dedicated himself almost since the time he had laid aside pinafores. Yet it was useless to repine. He knew that he was marked for expulsion as in- evitably as that to-morrow’s sun would rise. And what would his stern, old father have to say to this final outcome? Ah, that was a question on which the cul-' prit did not dare to reflect. Wirth head .down, engrossed in his moody meditations, he lagged up and down the stretch of gravel walk, oblivious to everything save his own troubles, until suddenly the sound of a soft footstep, and the sight of two figures looming up dimly, almost directly in front of him brought him to a recollection of his duties. “ Halt!” he challenged, throwing his gun viciously to a “ port.” ‘*' Who goes there?” And then he almost fell over backward; for, as the moon sailed from under a cloud, he saw, laughing out at him from a muffle of wraps the face of the Antipo- dean divinity at whom he had gazed through the window, while close behind her, equally shrouded, was the figure of the little princess—dainty, shy and lovely. ‘(To Be Continued.) comicloool C©