onwoods and
a small stream or "branch," which afterwards lost itself in the dusty
plain. He had already passed a few settler's cabins, a sutler's shop,
and other buildings that had sprung up around this armed nucleus of
civilization--which, in due season, was to become a frontier town. But
as yet the brief wood was wild and secluded; frequented only by the
women and children of the fort, within whose protecting bounds it
stood, and to whose formal "parade," and trim white and green cottage
"quarters," it afforded an agreeable relief. As he rode abstractedly
forward under the low cottonwood vault he felt a strange influence
stealing over him, an influence that was not only a present experience
but at the same time a far-off memory. The concave vault above deepened;
the sunset light from the level horizon beyond streamed through the
leaves as through the chequers of stained glass windows; through the two
shafts before him stretched the pillared aisles of Ashley Church! He
was riding as in a dream, and when a figure suddenly slipped across his
pathway from a column-like tree trunk, he woke with the disturbance and
sense of unreality of a dream. For he saw Lady Elfrida standing before
him!

It was not a mere memory conjured up by association, for although the
figure, face, and attitude were the same, there were certain changes
of costume which the eye of recollection noticed. In place of the smart
narrow-brimmed sailor hat he remembered, she was wearing a slouched
cavalry hat with a gold cord around its crown, that, with all its
becomingness and picturesque audacity, seemed to become characteristic
and respectable, as a crest to her refined head, and as historic as a
Lely canvas. She wore a flannel shirt, belted in at her slight waist
with a band of yellow leather, defining her small hips, and short
straight pleatless skirts that fell to her trim ankles and buckled
leather shoes. She was fresh and cool, wholesome and clean, free and
unfettered; indeed, her beauty seemed only an afterthought or accident.
So much so that when Peter saw her afterwards, amidst the billowy,
gauzy, and challenging graces of the officer's wives, who were dressed
in their best and prettiest frocks to welcome her, the eye turned
naturally from that suggestion of enhancement to the girl who seemed to
defy it. She was clearly not an idealized memory, a spirit or a ghost,
but naturalistic and rosy; he thought a trifle rosier, as she laughingly
address