She is very sweet and docile with us all--and we are careful not to irritate her or to have anything intrude which might excite or cause the slightest shock to her.
"Yesterday, standing at the window, she caught sight of a passing negro, and she turned to me like a flash and said: "'The Tenth Cavalry were there!' "She seemed rather excited for a moment--not unpleasantly--but when I ventured to ask her a question, she had quite forgotten it all.
"I meant to thank you for sending me the revolver and cartridges.

It seemed a silly request, but we are in a rather lonely place, and I think Miss Bond and I feel a little safer knowing that, in case of necessity, we have _something_ to frighten away any roaming intruder who might take it into his head to visit us.
"One thing we must be careful about: yesterday Mrs.Ruthven had a doll on my bed, and I sat sewing by the window, not noticing what she was doing until I heard her pretty, pathetic little laugh.
"And _what_ do you think she had done?
She had discovered your revolver under my pillow, and she had tied her handkerchief around it, and was using it as a doll! "I got it away with a little persuasion, but at times she still asks for her 'army' doll--saying that a boy she knew, named Philip, had sent it to her from Manila, where he was living.
"This, Captain Selwyn, is all the news.

I do not think she will begin to fret for you again for some time.

At first, you remember, it was every other day, then every three or four days.

It has now been a week since she asked for you.