dances, strolls
and sports which the post adjutant was generally far too busy to claim.
It was Esther who brought lawn tennis to Frayne and found eager pupils
of both sexes, but Field had been the first to meet and welcome her; had
been for a brief time at the start her most constant cavalier. Then, as
others began to feel the charm of her frank, cordial, joyous manner, and
learned to read the beauty that beamed in her clear, truthful eyes and
winsome, yet not beautiful face, they became assiduous in turn,--two of
them almost distressingly so,--and she could not wound them by refusals.
Then came a fortnight in which her father sat as a member of a
court-martial down at old Fort Laramie, where were the band,
headquarters and four troops of the ----th, and Captain and Mrs.
Freeman, who were there stationed, begged that Mrs. Dade and Esther
should come and visit them during the session of the court. There would
be all manner of army gaieties and a crowd of outside officers, and, as
luck would have it, Mr. Field was ordered thither as a witness in two
important cases. The captain and his good wife went by stage; Esther and
Beverly rode every inch of the way in saddle, camping over night with
their joyous little party at La Bonte. Then came a lovely week at
Laramie, during which Mr. Field had little to do but devote himself to,
and dance with, Esther, and when his final testimony was given and he
returned to his station, and not until then, Esther Dade discovered that
life had little interest or joy without him; but Field rode back
unknowing, and met at Frayne, before Esther Dade's return, a girl who
had come almost unheralded, making the journey over the Medicine Bow
from Rock Springs on the Union Pacific in the comfortable carriage of
old Bill Hay, the post trader, escorted by that redoubtable woman, Mrs.
Bill Hay, and within the week of her arrival Nanette Flower was the
toast of the bachelors' mess, the talk of every household at Fort
Frayne.

And well she might be. Dark and lustrous were her eyes; black, luxuriant
and lustrous was her hair; dark, rich and lustrous her radiant beauty.
In contour her face was well nigh faultless. It might have been called
beautiful indeed but for the lips, or something about the mouth, that in
repose had not a soft or winsome line, but then it was never apparently
in repose. Smiles, sunshine, animation, rippling laughter, flashing,
even, white teeth--these were what one noted when in tal