The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-10-03
written tor he kieIEaend Dispatch
ONE MIGHT IN A HOSPITAL
By JAMIE TYLER.

"You VII come again, LADY,"
=. Would you really like for me TO come S''
! said, rs bent over tn, low bed.
' viii die il you leave me now.
Then shall come ; bat now it is time to
retarn-a nixhrs rest will do you world OF
good
II wish you would not co.
The tones were so full of entreaty, so full
OF an unknown wanting, that paused
"Yoa are very much better. sir-surely you
do not fear I"
laying his hand ON mine. and gazing upon me
with his dark, sunken, but burning eyes, land
] cannot meet her here alone.
felt mis- puise---there was no fever, no de
lrium ia its quiet beat. rose to go, but an
unknown power restrained me. Throwing
aslde my wrappings, l sat down at The foot
OF the bed.
An nour, more than an hour he muir
mured. Have I changed much -
Very mucL," l answered. s;tdiy.
'Bat sue Will kaow me-know me any
where"
You are 50 much. better 1 replied,
smoothing the white pillow; 'iu few days
you Mi DC able TO return home.
"Waen Madeleine comes, he murmured,
o sl.a viii I.xe me with her.
sR;saed the light from the sufferer s face ;
still his hand cisisi'ed mine, and his searching
stance rested upon tne closed door.
light IN u hospital. To sit surrounded
by the aliag and the suffering; to feel the
Vlass o. d ieyere,. hand, as ii III was sending
ifs n.oait-4i lava through your being-iiie
and desllI, earth anu Immortality. / was
Startled .Toln any revery by the sudden
movement OF my patient and tue giiu cry
th;tl runs from hls lips, g. Size mas come.' The
door swung noiseiessiy back on Its hinges
u tail, ma. niIieentiy formed woman, wuose
oiack garments sWIyeo lightly 10 and fro
ana over whose shoulders hung a wealth OF
raven nsar, STOOD Within the open portals
Iae large, passionate eyes roam from 10 q 10
ocu; then. she gided forward, nearer ana
nearer, until 1t seemed TO unseen
shadow chung around her. 1 looked upon
my patient, has arms We're extended, smile
Ing hted up MS whole face; the woman kneIt
~ the Low bed, her arms wound around that
dying man, anu her lips pressed passionately
~ MS. "A glory not OF earth fell over the
white face; the lin bs relaxed. i bent eagerly
forward, SURPRISING the cry that rose 10 my
lips. In the dim, faint light my patient was
alone. l gaZed eagerly around. Surely,
uld not dream brought the light 10 bear
upon my patients features. He WAS dead.
Throwing the sheets over the stiIled form,
hastCned 10 the watchers department. They
bore him quietly into another chamber. HIS
hands were ciusped tightly over his chest;
within them lay closed case con tanning Two
miniatures. l unfaStened II. The one side
confined picture OF the unknown dead:
the other, and there burst upon my view the
mirrored SELF of that beautiful woman this
Madeleine. 1t was handed me to retain an al
called for.
There were no mourners; but gathered
white roses and flung theta over the new
grave, and went back 10 life's duties sadder,
End, trust better woman. 1t is singular
said the attending surgeon to me, IS stood
one day CHANGING over the sick list, that the
wife OF the gen tfeman you nursed that night
should have died at the same hour, only ten
minutes before him. 1 told she was sud-
denly indispOsed as she rose from the supper
table, and about twelve, scarcely with I
struggle, she died, calling passionately upon
her husband
He passed on to attend to- his duties. not
noticing the deathly pailor that gather ed over
my face. went home with a terrible fear
rackng my whole system. Drawing the
sacred relic from its hiding place, wept AS if
some part of my life had been drawn into a
vast void-wept as if the fate of these two
were blended with my own.
Never without shud6er do l recall that
one night in a hos pital.