The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1878-05-22

grave displeasure. "YouH do nobody
any good, and only upset your own
nerves. It's all nonsense, this idea of
ladies visiting the hospitals-what can
woman who has been accustomed to
shrek at the sight of spider do in the
midst of such dreadful scenes My dear
Mrs. Bryan, do persuade your daughter
to abandon the absurd fancy |"
Mrs. Bryan looked helplessly from
her daughter to the Captain and then
back again.
Captain Lawrence is right" she
said. "Consider, my love, what suffer-
ing you will be compelled to witness. "
Mamma" said Grace, firmly, sis it
any worse for me to witness than for
these brave fellows to endureP Oh,
mamma, to think that we have been
sitting at home in ease and luxury while
the men who periled life and limb in
our behalf lie perishing within stones
throw of our Aladdin palaces Let me
go, for it breaks my heart to remember
how selfish 1 have been."
Soft-natured Mrs. Bryan looked ap-
pealingly toward the Captain. He
shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, if Miss Bryan chooses to be
so foolish, have, of course, no right to
interfere. Only"
"Don't trouble yourself to finish the
sentence, Captain Lawrence" said
Grace, quietly. 81 need not say that I
have not expected the honor of your
attendance, nor do ask for it now p
She walked out of the room with the
air OF ayoung queen. Lawrence watched
her with a glance in which vexation and
admiration were curiously blended.
"The superb little vixen T. he NUT
tered between his teeth. "What evil
genius has put that hospital idea in her
head? However, it can't make any
difference; he must be dead long ago.
Only I wish 1 could have dissuaded her,
for if Pooh p he broke off suddenly,
"there's no use bothering myself with
such an exceedingly improbable suppo-
sition. I wonder what makes me love
that girl better the more she sets me at
defanceP Why can't bcorn her as she
scorns me3 It's curious psychological
puzzle, the ins and outs of that throb-
bing, passionate thing that we call
heart BY all the powers she shall
be mine if peril my own soul to win
her."
The MONDAY sunshine lay brightly on
the floor of the long barrack room, with
its wooden ceiling, and range of narrow
pallets on either side, and Grace Bryan
felt a sick giddiness running through
her brain as she saw the pale, ghastly
faces of the men outlined against pillows
scarcely whittier than themselves-the
shattered arms, the mangled limbs bound
down to wooden stretchers-the express
sionless faces whence life and light were
drifting away into the shoreless tide,
side by side with muscles all racked and
contorted by fierce spasms of pain This,
then, was an hospital
"My dearest, you are fainting !'
"No, mamma, am not, !" said Grace,
resolutely battling with the involuntary
recoil of her whole physical natnre.
"Let us go on; feel quite we'll now.
How the sunken eyes of the sick men
frightened as the fair, slight figure bent
above them with gentle words of pity
ing encouragement-what healthful re-
membranes Of absent mother and sis
ter love returned to them with the
touch of her long, soft curls upon their
burning foreheads-the cool contact of
her hand against their fevered palms
And as she passed on, strength and
courage came back, and the surgeon
himself wondered at her nerve and
calmness.
They had reached the last of the white
beds, where an attenuated figure was
supported among pillows, with an open
book before him. Not reading, however.
The heavy eyelids dropped above the
hollow cheeks, as if slumber had
weighed them down, and there was a
sort of weary repose shadowed over the
sharpened features.
"He is asleep, do not distrub hini"
murmured Grace, under her breath.
"No, he is not asleep" said the sur
geon; "and this is one of the cases on
which I most pride myself. Just gone,
when he was brought here-dreadfully
wounded at fredericksburg, but he is in
fair way to recover now, thanks to our
new system. Come little nearer-he1l
be glad to see you I"
The heavy lashes were slowly lifted
at the sound of their footsteps. disclos-
ing dark gray eyes full of the strange
mystery that only comes to those who
have stood at Deaths threshold and
seen the flow of the dark, dark river !
Harral what's the matter Speak
to me r. exclaimed the surgeon, in dire
perplexity ga glass Of water, johnson,
quick he's swooning again"
Where were your eyes, good, Es-
culapius, to imagine that John Har-
raj could swoon with those fiuttering
fingers in his own, those blue eyes pour
ing tides of eager light into his up
lifted heart? Your Pharmacopoeia
knows no such remedies as these
ST knew you would not leave me all
alone |" he murmured with the passive
bliss of child who wakes from hideous
dreams to find his face against his moth