The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-08-05

80 this day week I may expect you,
Mrs. Sphinx"
A moment later he, too, left the
house, thinking as he walked briskly
along:
81 believe she will suit me to a dot.
Trim and neat with a quiet voice. Poor
good deal of trouble" and then other
thoughts chased DR.. Reed housekeeper
from his mind.
Doctor Nathaniel Reed had been
brought up by an old maid aunt. A
woman composed On the sharp corne
and angular system. Yet, withal,
not unkind to her charge, but he being
of a bright, affectionate disposition
missed sorely a mothers loving ways;
albeit always grateful to the woman
who had taught him to be so strictly
upright and just, and placed him in the
way to earn an independent living.
About two years previous to his aunt's
death she had bought the old-fashioned
house standing in its own grounds,
where the doctor at the opening of my
story resided, for at her decease she
bequeathed it to him, with an income of
two hundred pounds per annum.
Steadily che doctors practice had in
creased, his reputation as a physician
gaining every day. Perhaps he would
have made money faster if he had been
less attentive to those patients whose
only pay consisted of their grateful
thanks. Jane, who thought no one
equal to her master, waxed fairly elo-
quent when relating how he had tended
her mother and helped along her smaller
brothers and sisters. And if the many
''God bless yous'' called forth by the
DOCTORS kind acts were registered
above, their record must have been a
glorious one
y X
A year had passed since Mrs. Sphinx
entered upon her duties as housekeeper
to DR.. Reed, and no fairy wand could
have worked greater changes than that
lady's clever hands had done. The old
fashioned furniture had taken on a pol
ish upon which no fly dare risk a foot
ing. Pretty lace curtains graced the
windows which looked out, not upon
weeds any more, but fragrant flower
beds and velvety grass and a rustic seat
meath the ~o'erhanging branches of an
ancient oak. Jane, no longer slip-shod,
but in a neat gown and dainty CAP, wa ted
upon .'the Mistress as she always per-
sisted in calling Mrs. Sphinx, to whom
she had become almost as much at
tached as to the doctor. And the doc
tor HIMSELF Probably he would have
thought no worse fate could befall him
than the loss of Mrs. Sphinx. What of
| that lady herselfp From the first day
when the doctor gave her so kindly a
welcome and babe her make herself
quite at home, and if anything was
wanting to her comfort to let him know,
she had grown to love her duties and
the quiet old house, and hoped that she
might always stay, although, OF course,
that would not be possible when the
doctor brought home a bride, which nat
urally he would do some day. Somehow
she did not like to think of that hour,
and so strove to put it out of her mind.
Yet the doctor, truth to tell, had hardly
given such an idea a thought. He was
too busy a man to have much time to
devote to society, and the appointments
of his home suited him to a nicely; con-
s%equently he never felt the need of a
wife. He had grown quite attached to
the quiet, little figure in black, whose
brown eyes sparkled so merrily at times
above their gold-bowed spectacles, and
would have sorely missed his faithful
housekeeper. For even outside of her
housekeeping duties, she was of great
help to him, assisting him to keep his
accounts and sorting his papers so clev-
erly. Perhaps he was thinking of this
as he said one afternoon rather abrupt
ly:
81 am afraid you are working too
hard, Mrs. Sphinx. How should you
like to take a holiday"
"What! You mean me to go away!'
she exclaimed, in a startled, imploring
tone.
ssGod forbidr' The words dropped
from his lips almost unawares before he
added: '.Just a little trip, say to the
country, for your health; although how
we shall get along without you, 1 do not
know"
"Then, if you please, sir, Ihad rather
not CO." was the quiet answer, and so
no more was said.
In his heart the doctor was pleased
that Mrs. Sphinx had elected not to take
a holiday. Somehow he had liked her
to welcome him when he came home,
and once he had said to himself, as he
noted the gray hair so smoothly tucked
away beneath her snowy cap:
81 am as fond of her almost as if she
were my mother"
Toward the latter part of that sum-
mer a virulent fever broke out among
the poor of the district where the doctor
lived, and hardly an hour could the doc
tor then call his own. And Mrs. Sphinx's
helpful hands were always busy those
days-oft soothing a fretful little sufferer
where others had failed, until her name
also became beloved of the poor that
learned to know-till one night, when
the doctor anne in to snatch a hur-
ried mouthful, Jane met him, ejacula-
ting, as best she could between her
sobs:
'Oh, master, the mistress is awful
bad, and she's locked in her room, and
she won't let me in, and-oh!' she
added, with a gulp, .'she's been a-talk-
ing to herself like anything, and-oh,
master, fishes been gone and took the
fever.
For a moment the doctor did not
speak-a something about his heart
seemed to haye ceased its motion; then
pushing open the sitting room door he
gazed in. With a shudder he turned
away. How empty the room seemed
without the little figure that it had
known SO long! Putting the weeping
Jane aside, he hurried up stairs. AS he
listened outside his housekeeper's door,
her voice babbling disconnected SEN
fences fell upon his ear; then, with a
white, set expression about his mouth,
he, pressing all his weight against the
door, burst it open.
A startled look of amazement gath
cred in the DOCTORS eyes as he bent
over the slight figure of his housekeep-
er, who, still babbling wildly, gazed
x-,%l 80 -oo,.,,, 1o.e -