alwart young manhood. "Nita is yet such a child she
infinitely prefers cadet society, and I always did like boys," explained
Mrs. Garrison. Some rather gay old boys used to run up Saturday
afternoons on the Mary Powell and spend Sunday at the Point--Wall Street
men of fifty years and much lucre. "Dear old friends of father's," Mrs.
Frank used to say, "and I've simply got to entertain them." Entertained
they certainly were, for her wit and vivacity were acknowledged on every
side, and entertained not only collectively, but severally, for she
always managed to give each his hour's confidential chat, and on the
Sundays of their coming had no time to spare for cadet friends. Moreover,
she always drove down in the big 'bus with them Monday morning when the
Powell was sighted coming along that glorious reach from Polopel's
Island, and stood at the edge of the wharf waving her tiny kerchief--even
blowing fairy kisses to them as they steamed away. No wonder Nita Terriss
was frivolous and flirtatious with such an example, said society, and its
frowns grew blacker when the White Sisters, the Fairy Sisters--the
"Sylphites," came in view. But frowns and fulminations both fell harmless
from the armor of Mrs. Frank's gay _insouciance_. Nita winced at first,
but soon rallied and bore the slights of the permanent and semi-permanent
residents as laughingly as did her more experienced sister. Nita, it was
explained, was only just out of school, and Mrs. Frank was giving her
this summer at the Point as a great treat before taking her to the far
West, where the elder sister must soon go to join her husband. Everybody
knew Frank Garrison. He had long been stationed at the Academy, and was a
man universally liked and respected--even very highly regarded. All of a
sudden the news came back to the Point a few months after his return to
his regiment that he was actually engaged to "Witchie" Terriss. Hot on
the heels of the rumor came the wedding cards--Lieutenant-Colonel and
Mrs. Terriss requested the honour of your presence at the marriage of
their daughter Margaret to Lieutenant Francis Key Garrison, --th U. S.
Cavalry, at the Post Chapel, Fort Riley, Kansas, November --, 1894--all
in Tiffany's best style, as were the cards which accompanied the
invitation. "What a good thing for old Bill Terriss!" said everybody who
knew that his impecuniosity was due to the exactions and extravagancies
of his wife and "Witchie."--"And what a bad thing for Fran