Within the week of their arrival, thanks to the energetic movements of
Mr. Davies, the new couple were established in Number 12, the outermost
of the long row of officers' quarters, the one nearest the open prairie
and farthest from the official and social centre of the post, but the
best they could hope for on the rank of a junior lieutenant in a crowded
garrison. Even this roost was not to be entirely their own, for Acting
Assistant Surgeon Burroughs occupied the rear room aloft, and had he
chosen to fight for his rights, would probably have been accorded the
entire floor, but like everybody else he was eager to make everything
pleasant for the bride. Davies had expected no such luck, and had duly
explained to her that a combined dining-, sitting-, and bedroom, and an
out-door kitchen was absolutely all that they could expect, and more
than they were really entitled to. But Almira had enthusiastically
declared, as she had written, that even an Indian lodge in some vast
wilderness she would rather share with her Percy than a palace with a
prince royal. That there was a halo of romance about this marriage was
something everybody in the Fortieth had heard and many in the Eleventh
believed. All manner of theories and not a few stories had been put in
circulation, and no end of questions propounded of Captain Cranston's
household--who were believed to know all the facts--and not a few of the
fair bride herself, who showed no unreadiness to enter into particulars,
but had evidently been cautioned to curb her confidences. Taking a leaf
from the journalism of the day, let us congratulate the reader on having
now laid before him or her the first and only authentic record of the
facts in the case,--let us proudly await the commendation due their
herald.
It was no part of Percy Davies's plan when he left the roof of his
devoted nurses at Cameron to return to the regiment within two months a
married man, but other forces had been at work. A halo of heroism had
been thrown about his head by the events of the summer. The papers of
his State had made much of his prompt and soldierly tender of service.
It was before the day of illustrated daily journalism, or his picture
might have appeared in several papers, all, presumably, copies from the
same photograph, and no two of them recognizably alike. According to
local predictions he was on the high-road to fame, rank, and promotion,
and Almira's romance was redoubled, and her importance in the community,
in her own eyes at least, immeasurably enhanced. One paper indeed had
referred poetically to the lovely bride from whose entwining arms at the
call of duty the heroic youth had torn himself, and the pen-picture
drawn of Almira was as flattering as the wood-cut might have been
frightful. Then something occurred that turned her head as nothing had
before. Who should write to her but rich Aunt Almira, her own dear dead
mother's long-talked-of sister, now the wife of the great railway
magnate, and Aunt Almira urged her niece to come and visit her, and
Almira went, as pretty a village maid as ever set foot in a Pullman car;
but Aunt Almira looked aghast at the rural cut of her garments, even
though she gasped with envy over her complexion. She drove her lovely
niece forthwith to a great mart where all manner of feminine wear was in
readiness for immediate donning, and Almira was in a heaven of bliss and
her aunt in corresponding spell of complacency over the improvement
instantly effected. This, however, was only a temporary arrangement. To
her own milliner, mantua-makers and modistes, and what not, the happy,
blushing girl was next transported, and Urbana looked upon her with envy
and delight when at the close of that changeful moon she was restored to
friends and fireside. Aunt Almira had given her niece a party, to which
came famous officers of the army, stationed in the city, to say nice
things to her about her hero lieutenant and honeyed words about herself.
There was a reception at which three cavaliers appeared in blue and
gold, with medals on their broad chests, great braids and loops of
glittering cord pendent from their armored shoulders. (Percy at that
time, in the rags of his first uniform and a shocking bad hat and the
wreck of a pair of soldier boots, cold and wet, faint and starving, was
staggering through the Bad Lands, dragging his skeleton horse behind
him.) A great military band was playing thrilling waltz music, and a
young lieutenant-colonel swung her twice around the whirling parlor and
helped her to champagne and praised her waltzing, which he declared
perfect,--and indeed she had enjoyed excellent teaching, but, alas! at
the hands of Powlett, not Percy, who would not dance at all. Yes, the
aide-de-camp helped her to champagne and more flattery. There was a
military wedding in a great cathedral church one evening where some of
Percy's classmates in glittering uniforms served as ushers and crowded
about her to talk of "Dad," as they called him, and to dance with her
and marvel among themselves later at her beauty, her unsophistication,
and at her being his choice. She went back to Urbana at the end of the
month, believing army life to be one long round of balls, parties,
music, dancing, champagne,--army men heroic gallants in gorgeous attire
who danced divinely and said the sweetest things ever whispered into
dainty ears. She went back with Aunt Almira's promise to provide still
more raiment for her _trousseau_, and finally with Aunt Almira's tearful
tale that her heart, too, was with the Eleventh, wherein her own beloved
boy, her idolized black sheep, was a trooper serving his country on a
private's pay and under the name of Brannan; and then, with a start,
Almira bethought her of certain wild, raving letters that she had left
hidden at home,--letters she had never spoken of to anybody,--letters
that had come to her from time to time in the spring and early summer
and then suddenly ceased, as Percy's had, entirely, for there were long
weeks that battle year when the field column was cut off from all
communication with friends and home, and these letters, too, had told of
Brannan,--told things she would not, could not tell Aunt Almira,--could
not indeed tell anybody, for her letters, though signed Bertie, were
written by another trooper, whose address was Howard.
After such joys under Aunt Almira's roof, life at home became
insupportable. Mrs. Quimby said it was Almira herself, not the life.
Clash followed clash; there came sneers, tears, squabbles, rows, and at
last practical banishment. Old Quimby could stand it no longer. Almira
went to live with her prospective mother-in-law, who was not sorry, and
who, hearing for weeks only her side of the story, believed all she said
about home troubles and their inciting cause. She could not hear enough
about Percy, and so who so welcome as Almira, who never tired of the
topic, or of the telling of the officers she had met and all they had
said of him and of his spirited conduct. Even a great general, she said,
had been presented, and before all the company had drawn her to his
broad-sashed, button-studded bosom and kissed her mantling cheek, as was
his way with every pretty girl he met,--Almira did not mention that. And
then these two women, invalid mother and impatient daughter-in-law
elect, were drawn closely together by tidings of Percy's illness,
Percy's careful nursing, etc., then of Percy's slow convalescence. They
could not go to him, because Mrs. Davies was far too feeble. Almira
raved about going,--wanted to go,--wept, implored, and ranted, but her
father was implacable and Mrs. Davies opposed. The latter was sure
everything was being done that could be done and she needed Almira. But
from the very first Almira was suspicious of Mrs. Cranston and Miss
Loomis, jealous of their attention, fearful of their influence. Percy,
she cried, not she, would prove faithless. She would gladly, willingly,
eagerly fly to his side, nurse him night and day, dwell with him in
bliss and a wigwam if need be; but he--he was cold--he was changing--he
would prove faithless to his humble, adoring village maid, and then
there would be nothing left for her but despair. Then as his
convalescence progressed she became insistent and Mrs. Davies weaker.
Almira poured forth her plaint to her aunt by letter. Aunt Almira gave
another dinner, to which some of the staff were bidden, and a mellow
symposium it was, and over the oft-replenished champagne glasses did the
kindly woman tell of Mrs. Davies's craving to see her boy once more, and
how the boy would ask no favors, though her husband, the magnate,
offered to send to the lieutenant passes all the way from Cheyenne. Two
Almiras prevailed, and the last month of the mother's life was blessed
and gladdened by the presence of her devoted son. Almost the last
promise asked of him was that there should be no delay in the marriage
of her dear children, as she called them, though the poor soul had many
a misgiving now as to whether Almira, after all, would prove a worthy
helpmate for her earnest, duteous son. Indeed, she at one time had
thought to ask that they might be united before her eyes, but Almira's
wedding garment wasn't ready, and Almira, who had urged all speed, was
not prepared for speed so great as that. She, too, secretly nourished
the idea of a military wedding and a big church. Davies never meant to
retreat from his obligation, but he had hoped to make the girl fully
understand what was before her,--what army life and its duties were
really like,--but his every effort to talk with her gravely and
earnestly met with reproach and tears. She didn't care what it was, all
she asked was to share his lot, no matter how poor, how humble. It was
he who, after for years making her love him so, was now doubting and
distrusting her. She knew how it would be when those other women,
instead of her, had been chosen to nurse and care for him. They had
usurped her place. They had undermined her. That--that Miss Loomis whom
he was holding up as a model to her--all this time! He'd break her
heart, and she'd just go--anywhere except home--and die. She had no
home. She had given up everybody--everything for him, and now he was
tiring of her. Well, it was pretty trying, but Davies strove to explain
and to undeceive. He didn't take her in his arms and kiss away her tears
as he ought to have done, and plead and pet and soothe as she planned he
should do, poor child. It wasn't his way. He strove to appeal to her
judgment and to her common sense, but could not reach them. And then
came to him the great sorrow of his mother's death, peaceful, placid,
hopeful though it was,--and then when she was laid away and he faced the
world again, he found that there were outstanding claims against the
homestead of which, through motives of kindness, both his mother and
himself had been kept in ignorance during her life. Unless he could pay
regularly the interest on a large sum the old place his father loved
must go. It had ever been Percy's plan to hold it, and in the fulness
of time to return perhaps to take his father's place in the church, at
any rate to strive to do so in the community. He had planned to lease it
until he and Almira should be ready to go to housekeeping there if she
remained faithful all these years, but now only by pinching could he
hope to save it at all.
And this he explained, but it made no difference. She would help him
pinch and save and starve if need be. They could live on a crust, and
she could cook and bake and darn and sew and sweep for him. The one
thing she could no longer do was wait, for people were pestering to know
when she was to be married, and some girls had openly hinted that Percy
Davies had changed his mind. Then came the naming of the day, and, as he
was in deep mourning, to her bitter disappointment he said their wedding
must be very simple and quiet,--just a few friends present as witnesses.
She had projected on a smaller scale an imitation of the swell affair
she had seen in the fall, but Percy wouldn't even have a best man. Then
he told her gravely that as they must live so quietly he thought her
aunt should not lay out money on party and dinner dresses and expensive
trifles. Almira should dress very simply as became a poor soldier's
wife, and as he was in deep mourning, and they could not go to dances or
dinners or anything of the kind, that she should so notify her, but
Almira could not thwart her aunt, and Percy's brow darkened when the
trunks arrived. "I fear she looks in return for all this for various
things which I cannot possibly do for her son," said he. He had not seen
the boy for months, and did not know how he might be withstanding the
temptations surrounding garrison life after long months of enforced
abstinence in the field.
In the days of Davies's convalescence Cranston had told him of Mrs.
Barnard's call and of Brannan's story, and rejoiced that Brannan was
Miss Loomis's patient on the train, and that all through the campaign
the boy had borne himself well, and all this you may be sure did
Cranston write to Mrs. Barnard, and most gratefully was it all
acknowledged. She urged that as soon as possible now her son should be
transferred to Cranston's troop as a surer and simpler path to his
commission. After meeting and knowing the military gentlemen at
home,--people in whom she had taken no interest whatever until her
wayward son had taken to the army,--she had begun to picture him in a
staff uniform and on duty with the general at home, and, motherlike, was
eager to speed the consummation. And then Cranston's next letter told
her that her boy's best friend and adviser, Lieutenant Davies, was from
Urbana, and then very soon came the story of his engagement to Almira
Quimby, her own niece. It was then that Almira was sent for and became
Queen Paramount, for when do mothers cease to plan for wayward sons?
And now the bride was actually there in the army. The ladies had
gathered to welcome her. The band had seranaded her the night of her
arrival. The colonel and his wife, captains and lieutenants by the
dozen, came to call, most of them with their better halves, some of the
latter refined, high-bred, cultured women, some simple-mannered,
warm-hearted army girls who knew no home but the regiment, no life but
that on the plains. Some vapid, frivolous, and would-be fashionable, but
all full of kindly motive. She could have had luncheons, dinners, and
parties in her honor, and secretly moaned that it could not be, but Mr.
Davies's deep mourning prohibited. She had dined _en famille_ and in
deep constraint at the Cranstons the evening after her coming, and not
all Mrs. Cranston's cheery, chatty, cordial way, or Miss Loomis's
courtesy and tact, could put poor Almira at her ease. She was set
against them from the start, and it made the feast an ordeal which both
Cranston and Davies would gladly have eliminated from memory could they
do so. The latter had never yet spoken reprovingly to his wife, but this
night he felt that something must be said. Just in proportion as her
manner to her hostess had been unresponsive and cold so had her
assumption of little wifely airs and proprietorship been comical. She
seemed bent on extracting from Percy public and frequent demonstration
of his lover-like side, and her appeals and endearments had furiously
embarrassed him. They went home early, met callers at their own door,
and were kept up late. That Mrs. Cranston should have turned and looked
inquiringly into Agatha Loomis's face the instant the door closed upon
them was to be expected. Her eyes were sparkling, her lips twitching
with the mental ebullition going on within; but Agatha turned abruptly
away. Mrs. Cranston then sought to search her husband's face, but the
captain was forearmed and chose to keep his back towards his better half
and to pull on his arctics and overcoat and gather up his little
hurricane lamp. The trumpet was sounding first call for tattoo, and
though it was no concern of his, for Mr. Sanders, his cheery subaltern,
had just gone whistling by on his way to the troop quarters, Cranston
preferred to face the falling snow rather than those speaking, luminous,
quizzical, questioning, tormenting eyes, and so invented business for
the occasion. "Don't sit up for me, Meg," said he, and she knew he
simply would not be drawn into a discussion.
But she had to talk to somebody, and what was Agatha for? Agatha had
palpably dodged and gone to her room, and would have been glad not to
come down again. She even went into the boys' room and romped with her
two young trooper cousins instead of allowing them to go to sleep. So up
came Mrs. Cranston and ordered her out, and then, when the girl would
have escaped and gone down-stairs again, Margaret confronted her in the
hall, placed her hands on her shoulders, and with a world of mingled
merriment and commiseration in her tone said, or rather asked,--
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What do you think now?"
"Simply what I have maintained all along. That he did right."
"But what do you think of--of her?"
And Miss Loomis, shaking herself free, hurried by her friend and down
the stairs. She refused to say.
Perhaps it might have been better had Mr. Davies postponed his first
marital lecture. It was very gentle, very brief, but Almira had seen his
vexation as they hastened home and had striven to avert the coming
comments. She well knew wherein she had erred. Public endearments of any
kind by word or touch had already been pointed out to her as
unconventional in society. There were no people on the post in whose
presence he more dreaded such demonstration than the two ladies of
Cranston's household. There were no people in the world in whose
presence she was more bent upon making display of her possession. He had
interdicted the gown she longed to wear and indicated a simple black
silk. In this point she had to yield, but she had conquered on the
other, and now when he gravely reminded her of his caution, she declared
she thought these people were his intimate friends, his confidants,--not
mere society people,--and--of course--if he was ashamed to have them
see--how dear he was to her----Oh, but why go on with the rest? Sobs and
tears and swollen eyelids and sore lamentation, and pleas to be taken
home again if this was to be the beginning of their married life. Davies
knelt alone that night, and his prayer for guidance and strength came
from the depths of an anxious heart.