Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-09-27
HER HUSBANDS NIECE.

Maidstone avenue. 1t was q refined
and elegant home, with blue satin
furniture, carpets of pale drab mo-
quette, and cut flowers in the windows.
Mrs. Claireville Brighton had studied
over the question very intently indeed
before she had resolved on opening this
Cooperative Home for the Genteel.
''It won't be an easy life," she said,
''but there are the girls. never shall
get them married off unless [ make an
especial effort.
So Mrs Brighton took none but gen.
tlemen-boarders and surrounded her
house with every attraction to dazzle
the eyes of the possible husbands of
her daughters.
Belle was large lovely blonde, with
a decided talent for the harp, and
white hands which had once been
modelled after by a scuIp tor. Gladys
was dark-eyed and piquant, with a soft
little laugh, and a taste for decorative
art. 1t was hard to decide which of
the two was the prettier. At least, so
DR.. Cecil thought.
DR.. Cecil fancied that he had lived q
single life long enough. He was be-
ginning to dream bright visions of a
home where a sweet face should well
come him, and perennial slippers
should be ever warming at the fire!
The buttons were coming off his shirts.
He wanted sympathy; he felt the need
of wcll-darned stockings. To be sure,
he was not the millionaire to which
Belle and Gladys had at first aspired,
but he was a visiting young physician,
II,
limited prospects. And Gladys, as be-
ing the younger, had agreed to stand
aside and allow the radiant blonde
every possible chance.
SO that Belle was dressed in the
pretty pale-blue costume which be-
came her golden locks and transparent
complexion SO eXquisitely upon that
March evening, when her mother came
downstairs into the drawing-room.
She glanced languidly up from her
book
Mamma, don't frown sou said she.
''Those Fuckers on your forhead make
YOU look Il hundred years old"
ANYONE would frown who was as
worried rs am. said Mrs. Brighton.
There's Clara sick with cold on her
lungs. And what to do about it [
don't know
i dare say she'll get over it," said
Belle.
''At all events, 1 have sent for the
tSoctor," said Mrs. Brighton petulantly.
.'Not for-Cecilp" cried Belle.
ooh, Belle" YEARLY retorted Mrs.
Brighton. ''do you think that [ have
taken leave of my senses? Certainly
not for Dr. Cecil! / told Bridget to 90
for that young man at the Dispensary.
I dare say he'll do as well as any one;
and Clara is such stupid thing that
she would tell Cecil the very first thing,
that she was my husbands niece!"
''You did very foolish thing,
mamma" said Belle, ''when you took
her from her relations in the country"
81 needed someone to mend the
house-linen and keep accounts" said
Mrs. Brighton. ''And how was [ to
know that Clara was such a delicate,
feeble creature? 1t does seem to me
as if life were all troubles and tribula-
tions!"
While Mrs. Brighton was thus be-
moaning herself, poor Clara lay up
stairs in a dismal, windowless little
room, where all the light and air came
from a ventilating shaft, disconsolately
watching the flicker of the lamp against
the opposite wall.
Poor Clara. She had come from
Poppydale to live in the city with her
aunt, fondly expecting TO find existence
Il sort of magnitied fairy dream. She
had been disappointed. She was i'll
and lonely. The cousins who were 30
have been dear companions, had
nodded coldly to her, remarked incl
IDENTIFY that ''they hoped that she would
be able to make herself useful to dear
mamma" Poor Bridget, down in the
| kitchen, as homesick as herself for the
green fields of Erin, was her friend,
and Clara's pale face frightened up a
little when that constant ally came
hurrying in.
Il thought you were never coming
| back, Bridget said she YEARLY.
'.Sure, mum, DEAR" said the girl,
s'it's the docther I've been for"
At the same moment there was a tap
at the door and Dr.. Cecil entered.
DR.. Cecil! For Bridget not fndin G
the young dispensary medical student
at home, had come to the conclusion
| that one doctor was as good as another,
and presented her case to DR.. Cecil
whom she met on the doorstep.
Zone of the servants, eh?" said DR..
Cecil.
Sorry bit of it," said Bridget.
'.but lady. livery bit as good as Miss
Belle and Miss Gladys themselves. The
missus's own niece, as keeps the ac-
counts and helps wild the linen and
silver. An she'd niver ha' been sick,
sir, if the missus hadn't sent her out in
rain-storm when dog wud ha' been
allowed to stay at home. But it's no
heart at all some people hasr'
And so, while Mrs. Brighton and
her fair daughters sat, ali unconscious,
in the blue satin drawing-room down
stairs. Dr. Cecil was standing at Clara's
bedside, feeling the pulse which bound
ed so rapidly in the blue-yained wrist.
..She is like pale lily" he said to
himself; ..as fragile and as fair"
He came down to Mrs. Brighton with
a grave face when his visit was con-
Guided.
Il have just been seeing your niece, y
said he, with something Of sternness in
his look and manner. s.She is
threatened with pneumonia, and it will
be necessary to move her at once into
larger and more airy apartment.
And She needs wine and arrowroot-
everything. in short, to stimulate her
falling strength"