The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1881-10-21
DOUGLAS HALSTEAD'S WIFE.

cam l going to dieT The doctors
keen gray eyes dimmed suddenly as he
looked down into the wan, girlish face,
80 thin and pale from the wasting dis
ease that baffled his skill, at the white,
nervous hands that lay crossed in her
lap, then he tried to clear his throat,
but answered, husBily,-
"Dear child, no, we hope not. You
have been very i'll, and 1 must talk up a
change with papa. Be hopeful, Eva !"
and he smiled cheerily as he turned to
Mrs Campion while lie stood buttoning
his glove
Eva only lifted great, solemn eyes in
q sad, questioning way that haunted the
honest old man as he went, perturbedly
thinking, to obey the various Tcallings
of disease and distress. Once he gravely
shook his head and sighed. He was
thinking of his dear little patient, SO
gentle and so fondly loved, only sixteen,
yet SO womauly for her years she had
been the light of the house before she
was Stricken by this mysterious illness.
She was generous and impulsive to a
fault, hearted, with pure, child
ish mind that even though she ranked
among the brightest students at the
academy, retained the guileless sim
plicity of an infant.
Just before the blighting disease had
fallen upon her, new hopes and aspira-
tions had come. The eccentric bachelor
uncle across the seas whose name she
bore, who had loved her from her baby.
hood, died, willing to her his thousands,
and his store of exquisite foreign treas
ures, the much-prized accumulation of
years.
GAS the one peison who loved Uncle
JESSIE | bequeath to Eva Worden Cam
pion my entire fortune and personal
possessions, sure that she will prize
them, the whole TO be her husbands in
case of her death, otherwise to descend
to the State National Hospital, in case
of her decease while single"
1t was peculiar every one admitted
that /; but Uncle Jessie Worden had al.
ways admired the poor, struggling,
student-cousin, Douglas Halstead, who
loved Eva 80 dearly. Hidden under the
crusty exterior there was warm heart,
and tender little romance he would
have blushed to own twined about the
lives of these two.
Douglas Halstead, only nineteen, pale
from intense application to the few
books he owned, pursued the torturing,
useless, ever fleeing ambition of his life,
and cursed the grinding poverty that
debarred him from the hope of years
Restlessly ambitious, life became O
burden by reason of the never atisfed
longing that possessed him.
"No one but Eva understands me,
he told himself as he went toward hei
house that afternoon "she always helps
me-"
He echoed the doctors sigh there
was an underlined fear in his heart as
with his wonted freedom he opened the
heavy outer door, hung his hat in the
hall and went in softly to the bright
room whore, in her cushioned chair
Eva leaned back, white as the pillow
beneath her head. She started little
as he-stoed, by her chair and said
softly
"How are you to-day, Eva dear?
II wanted to see YOU" she said, OK
tending her cool little hand for his warn
one to clasp in greeting, and failing u,
she did 30 to answer his question, 81
was thinking about you"
"And l came down here to bo talked
to-" he said, tenderly; "you alwayl
help me, little cousin"
His voice shook as he said the las
words he was thinking what shor
time was left for her TO help him, sh,
looked 30 fragile and unearthly.
Eva" he said, despairingly, at i
the old story of ambition at war will