There were women, old and young, who thought him lacking in more ways than one. The Fraziers said not much, but looked unutterable things when they went North on leave and people asked for Galahad. It was a family tradition that he had treated 'Manda very badly; that is, mamma said as much, but the elder sister had views of her own not entirely in harmony with those of her beloved parent. 'Manda herself found consolation by marrying in the army not two years later, and her husband thinks to this very day that Barclay, with all his wealth, secretly envies him his treasure, though admitting, in those lucid intervals to which so many lords are subject, that perhaps Barclay wasn't so confoundedly unlucky after all. It was at their quarters some years later still, at a far-distant post, that in the course of an evening's call, in company with his host, Lieutenant-Colonel Brooks, the chronicler of a portion, at least, of this episode of old-time army life was favored with the most important facts of all.
"What do you think!" said the stout possessor of Mrs. 'Manda's matured and rounded charms, as he came bustling in with the _Army and Navy_ in his hand, "Galahad Barclay's married at last. Here it is: To Ada, only daughter of the late Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence, --th U. S. Cavalry."
"Ada Lawrence! That child!" screamed madame, with eyes and drawl expansive. "Well, of all----"
But others, who have seen her in her happy wifehood, declare that Ada Lawrence grew up to be one of the loveliest of the lovely girls that married in the army,--and they are legion.
BEING THE TRAGEDY OF THE KOROSKO. With thirty-two full-page illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, ornamental, $1.50.
"The author has a splendid chance to use his descriptive powers and splendid material to draw contrasts in nationalities and to compare civilization with barbarity. This he has done very successfully, and the 'Desert Drama' forms an interesting narrative. Besides his splendid description of the desert and his portraiture of the cruel Dervishes and their fierce religious zeal, the author has given each of his characters a distinctiveness which is marked out very cleverly."--_Philadelphia Evening Telegraph._
"Full of excitement and passing from one crisis to another with true dramatic force. The author has been inexorable, too, for a novelist of his usually amiable predilections. He started out to tell a tragic tale, and he adheres to his purpose, two of his travellers losing their lives in the bitter misfortune befalling the party that comes up the Nile through Nubia so gayly and so fearlessly. The happiness of the people on the Korosko is turned to woe of the most terrifying description, just how we leave the reader to find out for himself, only noting that Dr. Doyle has struck out on a line comparatively new for him in this book, and that he has treated it with no diminution of his skill as a narrator. The book is readable from beginning to end."--_New York Tribune._