posture. But there
were times when a vision of Lady Elfrida, gazing at him with wondering,
fascinated eyes, passed across his fancy; even the contact with his own
race and his thoughts of their wrongs recalled to him the tomb of the
soldier Atherly and the carven captive savage supporter. He could not
pass the upright supported bier of an Indian brave--slowly desiccating
in the desert air--without seeing in the dead warrior's paraphernalia of
arms and trophies some resemblance to the cross-legged crusader on whose
marble effigy SHE had girlishly perched herself as she told the story of
her ancestors. Yet only the peaceful gloom and repose of the old church
touched him now; even she, too, with all her glory of English girlhood,
seemed to belong to that remote past. She was part of the restful quiet
of the church; the yews in the quaint old churchyard might have waved
over her as well.

Still, he was eager to see his sister, and if he should conclude to
impart to her his secret, she might advise him. At all events, he
decided to delay his departure until her arrival, a decision with which
the commanding officer concurred, as a foraging party had that morning
discovered traces of Indians in the vicinity of the fort, and the lately
arrived commissary train had reported the unaccountable but promptly
prevented stampede.

Unfortunately, his sister Jenny appeared accompanied by her husband, who
seized an early opportunity to take Peter aside and confide to him his
anxiety about her health, and the strange fits of excitement under which
she occasionally labored. Remembering the episode of the Californian
woods three years ago, Peter stared at this good-natured, good-looking
man, whose life he had always believed she once imperiled, and wondered
more than ever at their strange union.

"Do you ever quarrel?" asked Peter bluntly.

"No," said the good-hearted fellow warmly, "never! We have never had a
harsh word; she's the dearest girl,--the best wife in the world to me,
but"--he hesitated, "you know there are times when I think she confounds
me with somebody else, and is strange! Sometimes when we are in company
she stands alone and stares at everybody, without saying a word, as
if she didn't understand them. Or else she gets painfully excited and
dances all night until she is exhausted. I thought, perhaps," he added
timidly, "that you might know, and would tell me if she had any singular
experience as a child,--any illness, o