The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-07
!" Glad P I murmured. " Yes-very glad"


 Yes-very glad"
 lcouid not reply. Strange hot tear, came to my eyes, whose founts had been sealed for years.
 "We are always glad when we succeed m difficult case, and yours has been the most critical that have ever known" he continued, in hard, metallic way, that brought me slowly to zryseM It is triumph of Surgery to restore you to the world" To restore me to his wife! Did h. think of that in the midst of his success l wondered? Or was that a mas,s5 which did not concern him in the least now, which was not any part of his thoughts? Yes, he was hard man: she had always called him hard and un. sympathetic; 1t had been his profession first, and his wife second, and hls wife had resented the preference, fretted, com. plained, and fled. He will never miss me" she had said "he will be happier without me- Perhaps he had been. Who could tell. looking into that inAexible face, whether he had suffered or not? l was not sure. even, whether he knew me he spoke SO calmly, and regarded me as a patient in whom, on account of the complications of the case, he was more than ordinariIv interested. And for no other reason2
 Do you know who am ?" I asked at last, fretful and impatient.
 You must keep cool, sir,n he said politely, but firmly; excitemen. is al. we have to fear in you"
 t" You do not answer my question, Sir Edward"
 "Why do you ask p
 cannot say-I cannot explain" replied. But would be very glad to know"
 "Will it ease your mind to know?"
 " l think it will"
 "Yes. knew you directly you were brought into the hospital. never for get face," he said quietly.
 "Why did you not kill me when was so completely in your power9" I burst forth. deserved it-l-"
 He laid his hand upon my arm, and rose from the bedside.
 "There, there, that will do," he said. |" You must recollect surgeons pride, his tame, rests on the saving of his patient, not the killing of him." "Ah well, you may kill me presently in fairer way" l said. "l am at your orders, always"
 "Thank you," he said dryly, "I know that. And now try to sleep. And a good night to you, for it is what you need most"
 He walked down the ward somewhat feebly, thought, for his four-and-forty years, and the nurses rose and courtesied to him as he passed, and the patients watched him with their big, wondering eyes, giant among men, and as he stopped at the far end of the room, be- fore one who was also his especial care, the students seemed to rise about him, and hang upon his words.
 A good man. is he not, nurse ?" said to the attendant who had ap- preached my side again.
 |" don't know. He is a great man, at all events"
 "Yes."
 It is an honor to us for him to come now," she said, Gan honor to you that he should have been so deeply interested in you. Everybody has thought him par ticularly interested. But then it is a miracle that you're alive, with skull all smashed into the brain as yours has been. Why" she added cheerfully, in order to raise smile in me, "you've no business to be alive at all. It's against the record"
 "No, Eve no business to be alive.nI "That is it."
 An! well, go to sleep," she said soothingly; "you'll be more cheerful in the morning."
 Cheerful! In the morning waited very anxiously for him. longed to sec : him; ] had thought of many things which should like to say, and I wished to 6nd the courage, the strength to say them, and to thank him for all his thought for me. But he came not that day. nor the next. He was keeping out of my way now; perhaps he thought his presence disturbed me, and led to an excitement that was not good for me or, having set me on the road to convalescence, there was gone all interest in the matter, and he left me to men whose time was not SO precious as his own. mad got well enough to see visitors at last, but had begged Eva not to come to come at all. And 1t was for her husbands sake, rather than for hers. would have spared him. l was beset with strange, unknown fear of those two meeting, and possibly at my bedside. It vas too horrible to contemplate.
 She did not come. She took me at my word and left me to myself And l was greatly relieved. The fear of seeing her vas awfully strong upon me-the woman who had shared my life, who had sacri- iced her life for me, and to whom had my ambitions, my friends, my honorable career-the woman who vas my whole life, did not wish to see. vas afraid of any grief or excitement which she might betray-I was more lfraid of her indifference-still more of he thoughts she might have of her hus- 'and, and her wish to beg for his forgive less, and to tell him how bitterly she had epented of the wrong that she had done Jim.
 Sne did not answer my note, and was dad of that. There was always in her esters, amid the kind'iness of her nature. he ring of the natural discontent at vhat