The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-07-18

ness Of his speech.
Lizzie depends on me so, she muir
INJURED in extenuation. And have
been sorry for her"
After the words were uttered, she would
have given much to recall them. Lzzie's
history with man wholly
nworthy-was common property.
There were elements in it that brought
back Mrs. Rameaax's own tragic expert
ence.
| She shrank-wih sensitive flushing
of all her face-froG any allusion that
might seem to bear upon that chapter of
her life in which all her youth had been
bruised and trodden upon.
What else could she do with life in
which the dreams of perfect love and
faith had been shattered, shivered, with
brutal thrust to the ground, but dedicate
| it TO the unpersoAal service of humanity,
wherever it had known misery and suffer
ing like unto hers2 The purity, the
renunclatien of her aim would throw
specification over that dark, brief period
from which the sinned against had seemed
to issue with some of the blight OF the
SHINING upon her shrinking soul.
| May God give him rest! Mrs. Rameaux
HAD only an awed sense of pity before the
| k0CuiOly VI ACt uoSOduA INV
AS Lizzie approached convalescence,
the fever, by sudden impetus. seemed to
reach a fearful elimination. In ten days
the deaths aggregated an average greater
than that of weeks previous.
Resi-? There was no rest for doctors or
nurses now. They walked, day and night,
in the valley of the shadow.
Then as suddenly, and by a freak as
! inexplicable. the case abated. The power
aud fury of the disease had spent them
selves. There was as though a great lull
had fallen on the land.
Mrs. Rameaux had stepped one night to
the door. The wind was soft and humid,
and there was vague stirring of Spring
! in the air.
Ragged tatters of dark, streak-like
clouas swept the faint disc of the moon;
and above the watchers head the bare
trees FLASHED together with rasplng OF
| dry branches.
Mrs. Raneaux closed her eyes and drew
long breath.
When she looked up, DR.. May was
coming through the ligated hall towards
the door.
He was pale, and she noticed at once
drawn lock about his eyes that she had
never seen before.
He stopped near her.
"Will you rest now?" he said, "You
may. The worst is over. And-Lizzle is
nearly weIl.''
He smiled, and the faint color came
into Mrs. Rameaux's cheek.
You have more need to rest than /, ("
she said. "You look i'll"
do II"
He still fingered opposite her. He did
not seem to attach any importance to her
words. The breath of Tue night wind
brushed softly in between them.
He put his hand abruptly into the
pocket Of his inner coat. The object he
drew out was very small and dark.
Il saw these Today, driving through
the woods. They are wonderful early
corners fer our cold cline. You may like
them as = pledge that Spring is upon us,
and with it, | trust, hope"
| His voice had dropped very low as he
spoke. Mrs. Rameaux held out her hand,
and in it he laid two frail wild violets
| She caught them, with rapid, sensitive
motion, to her faee.
| "Oh, / like them-I like theml Thank
you"
And then she turned and left him.
DR.. May got into his buggy and drove
slowly away.
There was strange tumuIt In his veins.
It was as Though he could feel the throb
of the Spring in all this hushed awaken
ing nature.
His path led him by way of the woods
| again. Through the naked interlacing
bsughs above aim the moonlight, white
and watery, filtered in ghostly CLEANS.
Faint intangible perfumes of stirring
| seed-life haunted the air. He seemed to
breathe the very soul OF the night.
A desperate joy that life was still his,
| to feel, to enjoy, seized him. Nature, long
| suppressed by the chill charnel-house
atmosphere of death, asserted itself with
a mighty rebound. He suddenly drew his
horse with a sharp tightening of the
| muscles.
| There was reason for this throb and
| rush of blood through his arteries. And
| he had found it in the phantom of a
woman's face, sweet and pale as white
camelia bud, and framed in black, that
had risen and floated before him, luminous
as vision wrought from the beams of
| the moon.
| He found all his patients doing well. He
drove back rapidly. The whole night
seemed full of her presence.
| lie had rot hoped to see her again. But
as he went in she was crossing the hall.
She held some bandages in her hands,
and her sleeves were drawn up from her
delicate wrists and the waxed curve of her
arms.
In her dress he saw the two wood
| violets. A silver bar of moonlight crept
in through the high, curtainless window,
and seemed to imprison her as she turned
toward him with a half-smile.
The fever in his veins burned more
fiercely. Never had there been such
night as thisl They two were alone on
the face of the earth.
With his eyes on hers, drawing nearer
to her, he spoke at once.
II love you, he said-ssI love you. I
know it now to the full. You are the one
woman, and we were meant one for the