On the wall were some choice etchings and a few foreign photographs. On
the book-shelves were a few volumes of poetry, and the prose of George
Eliot and our own Hawthorne. Hanging on pegs in the corner of the simple
army room, covered by a curtain, were some heavy outer-garments,--an
ulster, a travelling coat and cape of English make, and one or two
dresses that were apparently too thick to be used at this season of the
year. He drew aside the curtain one moment, took a brief glance at the
garments, raised the hem of a skirt to his lips, and turned quickly
away. A door led from the room to the one behind it,--a spare bedroom,
evidently, that was lighted only from the back of the house and had no
side-window at all. Another door led to the hall, a broad, old-fashioned
affair, and crossing this he stood in the big front room occupied by the
colonel and his wife. This was furnished almost as luxuriously (from an
army point of view) as that of Miss Renwick, but not in white and
yellow. Armitage smiled to see the evidences of Mrs. Maynard's taste and
handiwork on every side. In the years he had been the old soldier's
adjutant nothing could have exceeded the simplicity with which the
colonel surrounded himself. Now it was something akin to Sybaritish
elegance, thought the captain; but all the same he made his deliberate
survey. There was the big dressing-table and bureau on which had stood
that ravished picture,--that photograph of the girl he loved which
others were able to speak of, and one man to appropriate feloniously,
while yet he had never seen it. His impulse was to go to Jerrold's
quarters and take him by the throat and demand it of him; but what right
had he? How knew he, even, that it was now there? In view of the words
that Chester had used towards him, Jerrold must know of the grievous
danger in which he stood. That photograph would prove most damaging
evidence if discovered. Very probably, after yielding to his vanity and
showing it to Sloat he meant to get it back. Very certainly, after
hearing Chester's words he must have determined to lose no time in
getting rid of it. He was no fool, if he was a coxcomb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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