The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-06-03
LOVES AWAKENING.


"You understand about the medicine
and beveragesP"
YES" softly assented the new nurse
She had laid aside her widows bon
net and veil. In her plain black dress,
serviceably unadorned, she looked very
slim and young.
Though her hands were so soft and
white, they looked capable. Mrs.
Rameaux might be inexperienced-she
owned as much herself-but she would
assuredly learn quickly. and intelligent
ly; and her sympathy would never be ut
fault.
This much the young doctors profess
sional intuitions told him as he saw her
softly bend over her first cot in the ex-
temporised fever hospital. Then he
passed on.
She might be a young woman and q
beautiful one. The atmosphere of the
countryside around had been such these
many weeks that man, watching as
he did, day and night, by the bedsides
of the dying and the dead, could have
his drift and tenure of mind scarcely
such that facts like these would bear in
upon it with any element of the excit-
ing.
1t had been an awful visitation. Had
beenp 1t was so still. Day after day,
week after week, the fever ragged, know
ing no abatement. Those who could
flee, leaving all, did So.
Among those who stayed fresh victims
were marked and dropped with every
new sun. A great pail, an awestruck
fear, had fallen over the community.
The spectre of Death among them. walk
ing their streets, sitting down, familiar
guest at their very board, had given to
all these blighted faces serious express
sion.
When her friends, terrified at the
spread of the epidemic, had asked her
why she delayed leaving with them,
Mrs. Rameaux had let fall some words
which acted among them with the effect
of an explosive.
Il shall not go at all. shall stay"
''Stay!"
MANY hands will be mcclellan
may be of use 1t is what have want
ed. Ii is my opportunity"
She might have said it was what she
had prayed for-the chance of devoting
herself, of practically renouncing the
world, of leading consecrated lite.
1t had been her one wish since her
husband had died-she scarcely at the
time more than a child. All seemed to
have died, too.
Her friends said she was morbid.
Mrs. Rameaux only smiled gently.
Her smile in those days was sadder than
tears.
''She will get over it said the friends
next. So Young, so lovely, how could
it be otherwise? This giving up, as it
were, of all her future; this monastic
simplicity of dress; this visiting of the
poor and the sick, and dcdicating of all
her days to the cutting-Out of charity
children's clothes-this was phase; it
must pass; the reaction would come.
There was mingling of the sarcastic
and the impatient in these assevera-
tions. The impatience predominated,
perhaps.
To prate of charity and the love of
ones fellow-man, is thing permissible
in good society-provided it be not car
ried too far But to have ones init
mates suddenly proceed to put such
theories into effect is q grievance to be
looked upon as personally offensive.
But Mrs. RameauX's unconsciousness
and serenity under this half or wholly
expressed opposition were singularly
unwavering.
If this was '.fad," she failed to tire
of it as quickly as flesh and blood usual
ly dispose of such.
When this last astounding announce
ment came. the Rameaux acquaintance
had an air of dismissing the matter as
now having passed beyond comment al
together.
Lucy always was queer" said one
female voice.
"Not always" retorted masculine Or
gan more obviously. THAT is, she was
always rather high-strung. But-well,
having been married to Rameaux might
be enough to" Then the speaker be-
thought himself and stopped.
Meanwhile, the new nurse gently,
with soft football. passed on in her self
chosen work. The weeks dragged by,
still the fever ragged.
She had held the hand of those writh-
ing in sightless delirium of pain and
moistened the lips of the dying.
The strain had told on her. The fine
oval of her face had grown more trans
parent About the full brown of her
eyes the blue circles had followed.
She was bending now over the pillow
of young girl who had been lowering
on the shadowy brink for days. To-
night the crisis had been reached.
The girl was of singularly nervous
and sensitive temperament, and through
all her rawlings Mrs. Rameaux's low tone
and magnetic touch had had a strange
" soothing, controlling effect upon her
Her dependence on both, her need of
her voluntary nurse, came to constitute
on the latter one of those claims by
which all rich natures are held in bond
age to some weaker one.
As she leaned over the girl and noted
that the eyes were closed and the chest
lifted regularly by the inspirations of a
sound and normal sleep, she realized
that the crisis was passed and the life
saved, Mrs. RameauX suddenly gave
way, and burying her face in her hands,
burst into noiseless sobs.
Mrs. RameauX!'
She started up breathless, coloring
with anger at herself.
.I-don't think ME very weak. l
don't know what is the matter with
mel"
Dr. Mays sudden presence, the keen
J look of his grey eyes, were not to be
borne.
But | know what the matter is," he
said. You are worn out. You have
been doing too much. VIII you take
some restP If you do not we shall have
you ill also"
He spoke with an almost abrupt au-
thority.
How can restP They need me-" She
| looked from the bed in front of her
through the open door to a vista of white
cots beyond. The faint light of the
night-lamp fickered over her black
dress, and the white sweetness Of her