Claim Number OneOgden, George W. (George Washington)
General
Claim Number One
Ogden, George W. (George Washington)
Western stories
Bentley had only a glance at Walker's friend, for the young man pulled
his arm and hurried him out. Outside Walker seemed to breathe easier.
"I'll tell you," he explained. "It's this way: I didn't suppose he'd
want to be seen in there by anybody that knew him. You see, he's the
Governor's son."
"Oh, I see," said Bentley.
"So if we happen to run across him tomorrow you'll not mention it, will
you?"
"I'll not be advertising it that I was in there in very big letters,"
Bentley assured him.
"A man does that kind of a thing once in a while," said Walker. "It
bears out what I was saying about the doctor. No matter how steady a man
is, it flies up and hits him that way once in a while."
"Maybe you're right," yielded Bentley. "I think we'd just as well go to
bed."
"Just as well," Walker agreed.
The chill of morning was in the air. As they went back the crowds had
thinned to dregs, and the lights in many tents were out.
"She thinks a lot of him, doesn't she?" observed Walker reflectively.
"Who?" asked Bentley, turning so quickly that it seemed as if he
started.
"Miss Horton," Walker replied. "And there's class to that girl, I'm here
to tell you!"
Agnes, in the darkness of her compartment, strained forward to catch the
sound of the doctor's voice when she heard them enter, and when she knew
that he was not there a feeling which was half resentment, half
accusation, rose within her. Was she to be disappointed in him at last?
Had he no more strength in the happy light of his new fortune than to go
out and "celebrate," as she had heard the sergeant confidentially
charging to Horace, like any low fellow in the sweating throng?
But this thought she put away from her with humiliation and self-reproach,
knowing, after the first flash of vexation, that it was unjust. Her fears
rose towering and immense again; in the silence of the graying morning
she shivered, drawing her cold feet up into the cot to listen and wait.
Walker and Bentley had gone quietly to bed, and in the stillness around
her there was an invitation to sleep. But for her there was no sleep in
all that night's allotment.
The roof of the tent toward the east grew transparent against the sky.
Soon the yellow gleam of the new sun struck it, giving her a sudden warm
moment of hope.
It is that way with us. When our dear one lies dying; when we have
struggled through a night hideous with the phantoms of ruin and
disgrace, then the dawn comes, and the sun. We lift our seamed faces to
the bright sky and hope again. For if there is still harmony in the
heavens, how can the discord of the earth overwhelm us? So we comfort
our hearts, foolishly exalting our troubles to the plane of the eternal
consonance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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