MARION'S FAITH.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER."

Capt. CHARLES KING, U.S.A.,

AUTHOR OF "KITTY'S CONQUEST," ETC.

PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1890.

Copyright, 1886, by J. B. Lippincott Company.

Copyright, 1887, by J. B. Lippincott Company.

TO

The Memory

OF

EMMET CRAWFORD,

CAPTAIN THIRD REGIMENT OF CAVALRY,

ONE OF THE NOBLEST MEN, ONE OF THE KNIGHTLIEST SOLDIERS, AND ONE OF THEMOST INEXCUSABLE SACRIFICES IN THE HISTORY OF OUR ARMY,

THIS STORY

OF SCENES WHEREIN HE WAS LOVED AND HONORED,

IS DEDICATED.

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PREFACE.

The kind reception accorded "The Colonel's Daughter" was a surprise anddelight to the author, nevertheless it was a long time before he couldbe induced to write this sequel.

When Mr. Sam Slick, at the first essay, shot the cork out of a floatingbottle some thirty yards away, he had the deep sagacity never to pulltrigger again, well knowing he could not improve on the initial effort,and so Prudence whispered that with the Finis to the story of JackTruscott and sweet Grace Pelham there had best come a full stop.

But many a plea has been received to "Tell us more about the —th," andat last the motion prevailed. Thackeray has said, "It is an unfairadvantage which the novelist takes of the hero and heroine to saygood-by to the two as soon as ever they are made husband and wife, and Ihave often wished that we should hear what occurs to the sober marriedman as well as to the ardent bachelor; to the matron as to the blushingspinster." And so, many of the characters[Pg vi] of the old story reappearupon the scene. That they will be welcomed for the sake of auld langsyne has been promised, and that they and their associates may find newinterest in the eyes of the indulgent reader is the prayer of

[Pg vii]

CONTENTS.