Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-03-05
SCOURGE-TINIE.
A Hair-Raising story of the Love of TwC
Men for One Beautiful Woman.

ed, While shade less glttcrlng and
tawdry than similar lodgings in the
Capital. OF the fashions of these
Southern towns he knew as yet but lit
tie. Paris and London and the Ger
man universities had sufliced for one
whose sole purpose in living was to
reach the highest science of his own
profession; and it was but day and an
hour since he had heard strange voice
calling, the voice which had summoned
him southwark to the shore of that
blue, vast sea by which CHASTITY plague
was stalking. A day and an hour
and he was standing now in the cham
Der of awful pestilence, perchance in
the presence Of the dying.
He brushed the haze from his sight
and tried 10 find things real. lie
seemed strongly conscious of some few
trifles: the white window-curtain flut-
tering family in the falling breeze, and
the morning sun, which grew hot and
pitiless; the twisted draperies of the
bed; the silence OF the stricken outer
world; his own image in the
mirror opposite. He regarded this last
with vague wonder What q pale,
daZed countenance was reflected! How
strangely gaunt that shaven face had
grown; how thin the brown hair at the
temples! How hollow were the sockets
of the eyes! lie went again
TO look at the man on the bed, who
still tossed painfully and moaned for
Water, water, water!' Punched face
and purplish, shriveled hands told in
stantly the awful truth.
,Janeway had come prepared. No
longer hesitating, he opened his case
and took out the remedies. lie bent
and held the spoon to the lips of the
sufferer; then he stood erect and spoke
one quiet word;
Seymour.
The mans eyes opened; he looked
up half deliriously, and gasped as if
Death itself lowered over him:
"Crist! l'oa here?"
The doctor, still looking at him, an
swered calmly:
Yes, | am here.
What have YOU come for? TO kill
me2 To take her from me?"
Where is she?" the doctor asked,
pausing between the words, although
no culver was perceptiblc of voice or
feature.
''She is safc--in Paris waiting for
me, the other answered in tone of
misery. Waiting for me, and dying
here without her. o God! 1t is your
curse upon us. | know-your curse.
Water! Give me drink OF water! l
am burning mp. Your curscr'
Hush .Iancway moistencd his
lips. You are not the one nor this
the hour TO speak of curses. Only one
thing | demand TO know--for the rest
be, silent-if YOU have cherished and
been tender with her? Swear to me
the truth, as you may meet your God
this dayW
The sick man cried out his answer
with despairing agony.
IL swear7-I swear that 4 have always
loved hertz lie broke again into Bit
ter moaning. The pain! ., my hands
my arms-my feet! The paint
Janeway seated himself and chafed
the limbs of his patient constantly,
untiringly, only pausing at intervals to
administer the remedies. There was
in his face set resolve.
The sufferer breathed more rapidly;
his voice grew huskier.
II don't see-I thought that you had
come to-take her back"
TAKE her back" repeated Janeway,
How can one take back anything one
has never had? | never had her; she
never was mine-except in name. If
she had once loved me, do you fancy
she would have forgotten it?" A GER
tain lofty pride seemed for the moment
TO round his speech 20, no; she was
never mine!"
He said no more, but continued to
chafe the cramping limbs of the foe,
whom he had found so strangely in a
strange land.
Seymour grew little quicter; he
smoke in a slow. husky whisper.
You are right, she never loved you!
She loved me, and 1 her; you cannot
blame me for loving her, even though
YOU, yourself, did not"
Il! | not love Amy--not love-my
wife, His wondering voice swcllcd
suddenly with a strange pathos, and as
suddenly he paused and seemed TO rec
ollect. 'No matter. But swear to
me this also: That you will never cease
to .cherish-that you will never forsako
herr"
IL swear the husky whisper came.
Seymour by and by dropped into a
doze
The afternoon drift9d along. The
room was silent and the heat intense.
The window-curtan barely stirred.
Janeway's eyes rested upon it as he
BY and by came in Sister of Chart
~.
..Is he living still?" she asked.
"He will lite, | think. said Jane
way softly.
The sister took his place and he went
out for some refreshment. He did not
20 far; he walked slowly. looking about
him with grave and sunken eyes. lie
could see Death striding through the
city, masked with the white and glar
ing sunshine. He could hear the cries
of those in mortal agony and the cry o.
his own heart.
Patience" he said to his heart
Tomorrow we viii 60 to them-to-
morrow, when all Is clear"
He fastened back to Seymour, who
still dozed. only arousing occasionally
TO beg for water.
The sister went away, and evening
crept on. The candles vast
ed slowly.
Janeway drew up an armchair, and
there sat watchful and resolute.
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