Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-10-08


around him the swarhing folds OF
dream-a dream that separated him and
her from all the universe besldes-a
dream the breath of the sweet-brier
heightened whose delie1ousness, the
CLINT of star made which real. A ter
rlbIe confusion and turmoil seemed to
be seething even in his veins; his eyes
were fixed and he could not untasten
them fram her: he could not recall the
existence Of another object than this
singing girl his brain burned and
grew full of blood to bursting.
Suddenly Mr.. Knight was on his
knees, beside the singers seat, his arm
across ner shoulder, and the music had
ceased to make the gloom di vine. And
lust as suddenly a White-rnbed apparl-
tiou glided through the WINDOW, ana
came and laid q second arm as heavily
upon Felicia. Felieita felt it coming
aud looked up. "Rise, if you please"
said Hortense, briefly, 20 the girl; Mr.,
Knight is ILL.,"
II was quite true. Mr.. knight was
indeed i'll; the excitement of the last
few days, of the last hour, with him,
had developed q disease which uneVent-
full seasons and tranquil emotions might
have postponed tOr many years. and he
was carried, raving, 20 his room.
The family physician who had been
summoned instantly, in the drst half
hour pronounciug the case to h9 an ex-
next, indubitabIe insanity in the
third, demanded consulting physicians.
1 and the best there were in america
and a messenger had left to bring them
almost before the words were well ut
tered. Unless the first stRgeof this SIN
guIar seizure were its most acute one,
! it was difficult to fancy what hoFrid
anomaly il might become when more
violent symptoms should appear now
the wild cries of the man alarmed the
l.
tabled ejacClatIons but worst of all to
| HOrtense was the LOOK of unspeakable
| trouble and confusion which met her
| when, in uncomfortable agony, she
! bent above him for this wife was one
| of hose to whom the marriage-vOWs
become part of their actual Identity,
and she but loved her husband better
and with a tenderer yearning because
tiis trouble, and almost this disgrace,
| had overtAken him. Yet, as if the sight
of her were now obnoxious, it was only
when he was unconscious, With his FAM
l cy Whirled away among nnrealit'es,
that he would suffer her presence in the
room.
| During brief intervals of one or two
hours Mr.. Knight lay quietly in pas
sive possession of his faculties until
| the parOxysm of his disease returned,
| and one of these intervals had just
elapsed, and the fit was on ain, when
the consulting physicians arrived.
Their first inquiries as to whether the
patient had ever received severe iDju-
| ries having verified their suspicious,
they had but little difficulty in decid
/ ing the trouble TO be the formation Of a
| bOny process, incident to the healing of
one of the crushing wounds made by
the machinery at the time Of his disas-
| ter, and with which, at last, the BRAIN,
partly by means of the increase of the
/ formation, and partly by means of its
| own swollen blood vessels, had come
| into fatal con act. Although no absorb
ents were known TO exist in the organ
| bv which to DISPOSE Of the surplusage
which flooded and drowned intelligence,
yet the treatment by which it might be
dealt with would be rendered futile by
| the promoting cause of the trou ole, and
! tine furious state must be followed by a
sort of maceration, producing lolocy
and death, unless an operation were
performed, removing the bouy process
| altogether, which, if it should succeed,
would be a permanent cure, but under
which in similar cases the patient had
| always sunk. Theoretically, there was
no reason why it should fail; PRACTICAL
| ly, patients had not been found with
strength sufficient to endure II. Yet,
in the one case there was id1ocy aud
certain death, in the other there was
extreme suffering, possibly death, Dug
/ just as possibly lite, reason, health
| Mrs. Knight must choose
The patient mad been KHao ually De-
/ coming Tranquil during rhss esnsulta-
/ ton. ALTHOUGH apparently aware OF
/ her presence, he haI NOS yet ordered
| his wife to leave him; and he now
| turned his hot eyes upon her with an
| expression that said he had heard it all /;
| for L. had not seemed important for the
! physicians to withdraw while his Vio-
| lent rawlings took no manifest note of
their approach or remaining.
Life, life, on any terms u soboed
! HOrtense.
"On any terms % echoed Mr.. knight,
| family. "I will not live to be an idiot"
''Tne sooner 1t is done, then, the bet
] ter,'' SAID the chief surgeon. "The pain
/ snall be as slight as we can make it,
| speaking lightly as he could of the pure
agony under which men had died.
"Must you bind me ~ ne asked,
/ looking up at the preparation to do
so, and already anticipating utter hor-
ror.
"OnIy-only to prevent accident, !"
whispered Hortense, and essaying to
call 40 all her strength. "Do not fear.
L will stay here. will hold your
hand.,
Il should like to see Felieita, - said
Mr.. Knight.
The words fell upon the heart of Hor-
\ tense as drops of water might have fall
len upon red-hot, kissing irOn-temper-
ing it, il may be, to the strength and
sternness of steel.
But that siuging-bird had flown. Fe-
licta had packed her trunks, and was
away the day before. HOrIense had not
meant that he should know yet in the
instant that she hesitated his servant
had told him.
Mr.. Knight lay still many moments
then, while the surgeons were making
, | ready in the adjoining room, In every
moment of them all HOrtense feared
, that, hastened by the words, he had
| | heard, the mad one would arrive, and
she waited IN her own mlSery-nisery
| that migh have been greater than his
i since she, the wife that loved him, en-
! ddring already the loss of his love, mad
to behold besides his sOrroWing fbl
another. But now HOrtense put ashes
on her heart, and forgot herself. A,
, lor h'n1, since this was so-stnct FPlici-
ia had vanished out of his world, t.
: leave her memory only like that OI q
bubble which has been pricked-he felt
! that neither death, nor pain, nor fOrti
tude, nor foulishness, were ma terS any
: longer of the slightest moment. Ba
: h. supreme instant was close at hand
ttHOrtense," +" said her nus b tni at last
7, s'you are a good woman You are
! faithful wife and Ii am thoruu zhll
had. The best thing tuHt 1 can do is &
die !" How she lOnged to throw he
= arms about him, TO kiss his dry mouth
70 weep WIN AAGf AhEC III bllG k'lFAfN OO
side him, ouiy to be of any service now
but she dared not move or spcak, les
: the action might excite him again. Sht
= | sat looking straight before her, with th'
: faint, kind smile that she had summon
!, ed to her lips.
q ''And now good-by," he said. Il
= do not want You with me-"
"Oh, let me-let me stay :" she cried
!, choking down her sob. "Only let m
!. stay ~
: mo" he answered her. Il do no
: want you. I have pain to suffer, but
= will not have the Illumination also q
= your seeing me suffer it. Perhaps W
y snail not speak again; sogood-by. Yor
a can not help me, L say. Go ~ Ant
y presently no added Il do not want t.
:; live. / hops that l shall go out ike
- spark. You heard me. GoW
!" Aud she rose, hiding her face, an
1f went ont.
It 1t was directly afterward that In
re- surgeons returned, prepared Tor thei
- dreadful work. His rolling, aehln
ewes saw them draw near, shrinkin