Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-02-29
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Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
THE OAKHURST ROMANCE.
BY MRS. HENRY DEAS.
CHAPTER XIII.

was suddenly invaded by aruthlessfoe, which
had already visited, with fatal effect, several
neighboring places in the county-scarlet
fever. Cecil was its prey, and soon the dread
form of death appeared to hover mistily in
the distance, awaiting to claim its victim.
For many days the boy lay unconscious,
sometimes raving in delirium, sometimes sink
ing into death-like stupor, from which often
times those watching around him feared he
would never awake. Mrs. Mansfield hung
over him in agony too deep for tears, and
Richard was his patient, faithful and most
loving nurse.
The skill of the physician and the tender
and unremitting care Of their assistants, were
at length permitted to battle the disease, and
the household idol, so nearly torn from their
grasp, was brought back, very slowly and
gradually, from the very brink of the cold
river, to be cherished more closely than ever
in their grateful hearts.
But on the very day in which the physi-
clans pronounced him so far convalescent as
to remove all apprehensions for his safety,
Richard sank beneath the disease. Long
watching and fatigue had so exhausted his
energies thathis constitution appeared to have
lost all power to resist the inroads of the fever,
which this season was unusually violent in its
form.
ri fear, madam, the enemy we have just
routed in one quarter will give us hard bat
IL r.
ly. He had conceived great liking for
Richard, who had won his special regard by
the skill and fidelity with which he had nurseed
little Cecil.
"Oh doctor, is he so dangerously ill?"
asked Mrs Mansfield anxiously.
II fear he is, madam; but we must do our
best advise you not to speak Of this to our
little boy just now; he appears to be very
much attached to his tutor, and anything OF
an agitating sort must be avoided, as it would
prove injurious to him in his present weak
state. You must continue with Cecil as usu-
al, and if he asks any questions about Mr..
Powell tell him he is little worn out and l
have prescribed rest. I will provide the best
of nursing for our young friend, so you need
give yourself no trouble on that score"
"You are very kind, doctor. I am thank
full he is in such good hands. l trust and pray
your efforts to bring him through may be
crowned with success. I cannot tell you how
he has endeared himself to !" said the old
lady with fearful eyes.
''I will DO my very best," said the doctor ;
and nothing could exceed the kindness and
solicitude which characterized his attendance
on his new patient. Richard was very, very
i'll; there was no doubt of that; fully as i'll as
Cecil had been, though the disease took out
wardly less violent form. He did not rave
as the boy had done, but lay for the most
part very quiet, save for the low broken words
in which, from time to time, when most under
the influence of the fever, he murmured fragg-
ments of sentences that showed his mind was
busy with memories of past days and scenes
far away. The familiar names Of his former
friends were most often on his lips, and the
name of Ethel especially so frequently recur-
red in these wanderings that the doctor one
day said to the attendant nurse,
II fancy, Mrs. Long, that our patient is or
has been in love. Do you observe how con-
stantly he repeats that name?"
"Dear heart! yes, sir" said Mrs. Long.
"It's in his mouth night and day, until feel
so sorry to listen to it, for it seems to me he
must be pining to see her, whoever she is.
And he's the easiest patient 1 ever had, so
quiet and gentle like. He's all the way from
Ameriky, amt he doctor?'
eyes, all the way from America. He came
here quite stranger, I believe"
$50 heard. Poor young gentleman he
must feel awful lonesome sometimes, I should
say. No wonder that his mind should be al
ways wandering offto his home, now he's light
headed"
And Richard, in his own fancy, was Richard
no longer, a stranger in strange land; but
Brooke Eversham, walking under the green
oaks of his Virginia home, or within its state
ly walls; or else in that other home not less
familiar and less dear, where lived still, as he
thought the kind friend and guardian of his
boyhood and his youth. Of him he spoke,
and of Arly; but Ethel, Ethel, was oftenest
the yearning cry of his heart.
81 fear me, doctor, he'll not be much longer
in our hands," said Mrs. Long, wiping her
eyes, as the doctor stood beside her, looking
anxiously down on his patient, on the ninth
day of his illness.
eve shall soon be able to tell" was the re-
ply. eff he holds out through the night,
shall have hope"
Many time through that long night did
Mrs Long put her ear to Richards lips to see
if he really breathed more than once she
laid her hand on his heart and could not be
* sure that she felt it family Auttering. He
talked no longer now; his mind seemed to
have ceased working, and he lay in an utter
unbroken calm, complete lethargy of all
his faculties
The doctor came at daylight in the morn
ing, half expecting to find that there was nc
longer occasion for his visits; but as he bent
over Richard and felt his pulse, and laid his
hand softly on his forehead, his countenance
frightened.
"Mrs. Long, this is a more healthy and
natural sleep than he has had yet," }" he said in
awhisper, as he turned to the nurse. "With
Gods help I believe we shall bring him
through
'Do you think so, sir?" said the nurse
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