Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-06-26

II did not know it," replied Mr.. Vivian,
mastering his emotion by strong effort. "He
is here-has met with a severe accident, and
is now lying insensible. There is surgeon
in attendance; but pray comet up. l will show
you the way"
The surgeon and the doctor turned out to
be intimate friends. 1t needed but half a
minute for them to arrive at mutual under
standing, and FIVE minutes more for the hur-
ried consultation which ensued but the delay
was all too long for Mr.. Vivian, whose anx'
iety for his brother was swallowed up by his
more absorbing anxiety to meet his wife.
"Now, my dear SIR" cried DIR. Snow, in
cheerful tone, turning to him at last, "we will
90 at once-you and 1, to my house; and on
the way will tell you the opinion that my
friend and I have arrived at in regard to your
brothers case"
Mr.. Vivian might have been walking in
dream, so unreal did his situation seem to
him as he walked through the streets at the
doctors side.
Their destination was soon reached, and
DR.. Snow, pausing in the hall, craved yet
another brief delay while he went to prepare
Rachel for her husbands arrival. Brief as
it proved, it seemed interminable to the latter /;
and no wonder, considering what crisis OF
his life had come upon him. Rachel found
Rachel not unfaithful, but longing and wait
ing for a reconciliation; all his torturing
doubts swept away! Was this wonderful,
incomprehensible bliss reality, or delusion
that would presently slip. away from his
grasp? .
It was no delusion. For while he watched
and waited, there rang suddenly in bis ears
cry-a sweet, strange, familiar cry-he heard
his own name, "Murrell, oh! MurrellP-
and as door opened at the end of the corri-
dor he could wait no longer, but rushed for
ward, guided by that voice, before the doctor
had time to come out of his wife's room and
bid him enter.
And then! But, oh what need to describe
that meeting2 What pen could describe it :?
Surely not one as impotent as mine. l DO
not think that at first those two, so long parted,
so strangely divided, entered into the realiza-
ton of their own joy. 1t was not Joy, it was
a sort of delirium, tremulous, binding, dizzy,
relieved by no utterance save that Of sobs,
and sighs, and broken, inarticulate words.
As to explanation or questioning, there was
none-could be none, as yet. When those
first supreme moments we're passed, Rachel
lay back on her pillow, white and exhausted
with the intensity of her emotion, and her
husband, still claspiqg her in his arms, bent
over her, half in terror, lest his newly re-
stored treasure should be slipping already out
of his possession-so frail, so changed had
she become since he had seen her last.
By degrees, however, as the overwhelming
tumult of feeling began to calm down, and a
faint color crept back into her face, his fears
subsidized; and he could breathe freely once
more. Still he said but little, only sat and
looked at her as if be could never look his
gil. And she, thrilling beneath his gaze, lay
oppressed with weight of bliss that was al
most harder to bear than sorrow, until sud-
denly she turned her face and hid it on his
breast, and murmuring his name, found relief
for her burdened heart in gush Of exquisite
tears.
After a full hour, DR.. Snow, whose own
emotion, bless his sympathizing soul had been
overAowing little in private, came back to
seek them, and to introduce some of the whole
some commonplace reality of life into the
dreamland in which they were still floating.
He spoke of Maurice, and Murrell remem.
bered, with shame, that he had never even
asked for theopinion which the doctor had
promised to give. 1t proved to be favora-
BILE one, fortunately. ...
81 think he'll recover" said the doctor,
"and what is better still, I think this accident
will turn him into new man. It's ten
chances to one that when he comes to his senses
again he will prove as sane as you or l. The
shock will do what neither you nor |, nor all
the nursing in the world, could have accom-.
plished, perhaps, in years-give turn to his
brain that will scatter all its delusions to the
Winds" .... ...-
"How strange it is" said Rachel, turning
her dark eyes-so radiant now with the light
of joy-upon her husbands face, "that l nev-
er knew until lately, Murrell, that you had a
brother p
"Yes, love; 1 blame myself inexpressibly
now for never having spoken to you of him"
he replied. "Had I done 80, all this grief
might have been spared to us. But it was a
false feeling of modification humiliation
call it what you will-which made me shrink
from introducing topic, which to me was a
bitterly painful one, into our peaceful inter-
course. 1t is long story, my Rachel, which
I cannot repeat now. I must wait and tell it
to you at some other time"
CHAPTER XVI.
And, truly, waking dreams were, or less,
An oil and strange affection of the house.