St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-09-22

put that picture away, so could not
see it. "That can not do,H said she,
but | can throw my dark shawl over
it. and she did.
| Helen Froment, meantime Rubens'
Helen, continued to smile and be anna
BILE. 4 asked the other Helen to make
! me a little copy of that bright face, and
to leave it where [ could tip it up with
my weak hand, and look at it a little
nearer. This she did, but when tried
to grasp it, ] found out how weak was.
found that | could not even master
that trail piece of paper.
/" You must remember" said Helen,
"you are still very ill., and she laid
the sketch away in a drawer of my lit
| tie table.
Then 1 began to get better, I was
strong, eonvalescent. I returned in
| thought to the world, and with me into
the land OF health came the patient
girl who had now become nv daily
companion. She did not take all the
care of me. Two men seemed to do
that. | could not exactly tell where or
when they came in, but Just about with
the disappearance of Arthur, | shohld
say--that vague, uncertain period, not
far from the time when Helen came in.
Somehow, | did not care to ask ques-
tons. Life was delightful enough,
with the music, the painting, the.
poetry, which this accomplished girl
brought into it. The other people made
disagreeable noises, and were not al
together agreeable to- feeble nerves.
My men nurses tramped heavily and
tangled glasses, and the doctor was,
although the; most respectable of his
species, what should call a loud man.
Helen made no noise; she was the very
essence of stiffness, except when she
sang or talked, and that was music
(which is not noise. Discord is what
hurts us. Helen was all concord.
Noise is discord. 1t seems to me that
this state OF things had gone on for
weeks, and that | began to know Helen
as d man ought to know woman
whom he shall love and marry. I be-
gan to watch for fitting opportunity to
tell her that | loved her, that she was
the being of all others to make me
happy. | owed it to Helen to tell her
SO, and felt that we must make some
excuse to our friends for being so much
together, that even the doctor might
think it strange, that, perhaps, Arthur
-yes-Arthur. Where 7cas Arthur2
But when was ready to frame these
sentences, Helen always evaded me;
sometimes tinkling of that ridiculous
bell-and the men nurses came in
sometimes the doctor himself, never
Arthur.
The parlor began to look unlike the
parlor. The piano was covered over
with q white cloth, and bottles stood
upon it. Nothing seemed changed on
the walls but the cloth which had hid
den the Cenci
That had fallen, and suddenly the fig
IRE seemed to bend out of the frame,
and to nod to me.
sHelen!n I shrieked-s Helen! Hide
the Cenci from me. -
Her cool hand was over my eyes in q
moment, and the vision passed away.
.. Poor, troubled BRAIN I heard her |
say, as she rubbed my forehead with
her soft hand until went to sleep
1t would be absurd to try to follow
this love affair." Suffice to say we got
to understand each other, and Helen
promised to marry me. We had of
course to wait until i should recover my
health, which was as yet uncertain. /
could not disguise it to myself that. al
though had hours of health, that the
bottles, the doctor, the bed, and the two
men nurses remained
Helen always said patience, dearest,
patience! ali will be well. will wait
for you. You have g long summer be-
fore you, in which you must recover.
Meantime let us go on with the read
ing, the music, the painting Helen
was sweet and consistent, and obeyed I
her. 'it
And then we constructed our whole
future life. She was to be my econom-
ical help-mate; with her little savings
and mine we could afford modest
home.
we would begin plainly and live
cheaply. She would still ply her brush
and / would dig away down in Wall
street, but we should be together. We
had our love as q splendid capital.
That was invested tor us, and with that
we could not be poor.
These were days and nights full of
happiness. Helen seemed to need no
sleep. She was often by my side at
that dread hour of three in the morning,
wiping the dews from my brow and
helping to account for the strange
noises. We came to the conclusion
that the periodic dropping OF the crow
bar was some midnight assassin of
sleep repairing the elevated railroad.
The little tinkling bell, we thought,
might DE some cat entangled in a net
work OF resounding metal, the descend
ant of Ben the Cat, whoever he might
be. Helen was the only person who
had attended me through my illness,
who ever tried to explain, and to help
me out of nv intellectual mazes. The