The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1882-04-26
KESIDE N
"Can you save him, Doctor ?"
HDamfnO

sDamfino."
Winsome Lillian Mcclure looked up with
her rare blue eyes, dewy with tears, into the
face OF the young physician who had been
summoned in hot haste from the restful quiet
of a poker game to the palalial residence OF
Stuyvesant Mcclure in order that his skill
and knoWledge-the fruit of years of study
and toll might if possible bring back to
health the gray-haired old man who now Law
tossing In mortal agony.
Lillian Mcclure had known Aristjdes W.
Hennessy since the days when they were
both little children, and not six months agone
she had stood before him in all her regal
beauty, her velvety eyes draped with a mist
OF teals, and while the soft pearly flesh of
her beautiful arms just touched bis neck with
apulsing warmth that would make your head
swim, had SAID she could never love him.
except as Il brother.
As Arlstides had three sisters, and had pas
sed the greater portion of his lite sparring
with them, this statement did not strike him
favorably, and he went away with a dull,
dead fe, lug in his young, blltbesome heart,
and o large chunk Of plug tobacco in his
merry spring pants.
And now he was back again in the house
that house from which he had erst so
often stolen silently and sadly away when
the proprietor Was Unexpectedly found at
home, and which he ha left, rs he supposed,
for good. in the balmy days of June. when
the sWeet-scented breath OF summer was
kissing into lite the myriad forms of fl raj
beauty that lie with such silent sweetness
upon the vefduie clad bosom of the earth
These thoughts had surged throngl. his mind
as he mounted the front steps ia obedience 10
the nasty summons of the livelied Servant.
he saw the old familiar door mat WITH the
word 'sW elcome" worked in its cenlre-lhat
faieful word that had gleamtG up at him in
all It's luild ulslinc,ness and muckery. one
Light wis n old Mr.. Mcclure opene ID he do, r
in answer TO Arislides' timid yank at The bell
and said in the cold, County Antrim tones he
knew SO well how to use, that Miss Lillian
was not at home and probably wouldn't be
for seven or eight years. In the hall stood
the hat-rack, beside whose guant frame with
its spectre e. like arms he had SO often fingered
In the mellow half light Of the turned down
gas with Lillian's head resting trustfully above
his liver pad and her coraline corset pulsing
gently against his suspender. All these
scenes came back to him with a vivid dis
t~inctness as he stood by the bedside of the
sick man and looked tenderly down at Lii
iian, who. with pale face and rumpled bang.
had kDelt by her fathers side and buried her
nose in the pillow that supported his head.
Presently she looked up at Aristides with
a yearnipg, st. Louis look, that would have
melted CHARLES Francis Adams.
The SouDg man bent quickly forward.
"LilliaD, my love-" he said, ''can it be pos
elbte that"
"kneel by my side" said the girl in ten
der, porter-house-steak tones that thrill ed his
very blood.
Unmindful Of the bagginess in the knees
OF his pants tbs. such an action would most
certainly produce, unmindful Of everything
but the fact that he loved Lillian Mcclure
with a wild, passionate. Dearborn avenue
love that reeked not Of matinee tickets or ice
cream, Aristides knelt by the girls side, and
placing his strong right arm around her tapey
waist. be kissed her tenderly just aft her
starboard ear.
1t wasn't q very easy job to rattle this
young man.