The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-07

st1tutl0n, which IS visited, ana Tn & measure supported, by the benevolent ladies of the city, and the low fever which prestrated her strength and clouded her mind did not abate for weeks. She was too i'll to know or care where she was, but one pleasant autumn morning her languid eyes opened, and she was conscious of the strangeness of her surroundings.
 She watched the white curtains of the open windows waving to and fro in the soft breeze, and then her eyes fell on lady who was arranging some roses in glass which stood on a small stand near her bed. A lady with lovely face and somehow to the girl the perfume of the roses and their del- icate tints were ever after always as- sociated in her mind with this first glimpse of Helen Carroll.
 Miss Carroll looked up from her task. and saw the girls eyes fixed upon her.
 "Ah, you are better?" she said, with a pleased smile, advancing to the cot and laying her hand on Margherita's wrist. "Your skin is cool and moist at last. Do you understand me? Can you speak English?"
 "Yes," said the girl, faintly.
 "Ah, that is well. You will soon be strong again, but you must not talk, and you must mind what say. Pm your nurse, you see, and you must take some of this soup now"
 She raised Margherita in her strong young arms, and fed her as if she were helpless infant; then beat up her pillows, turned them, and laid the weak head back.
 "Now you look ever 80 much bet teri" said Miss Carroll, with her beautiful smile. "Try to sleep lit- tle."
 Margherita was too weak to feel surprise. How she came in such a comfortable bed, with such 8 lovely lady as a nurse, did not trouble her in the least, and not until she recovered did she know that she owed her life to Helen Carroll's faithful care.
 People called Miss Carroll eccentric. Young, rich and handsome, she cared nothing for society, but, as people said, she was always taking up some craze, and her latest was philanthropic work.
 Her world prophesied that she would weary of it in month, but a year had rolled by, and found her faithful to her self-imposed duties, and enlarging the sphere of her useful ness. She had been attracted by Margherita's beauty when the girl was first brought to the hospital, and made her her special charge. As the girl grew better, the interest deepened, until the thought of parting with her became more and more distasteful to Miss Carroll.
 +You will soon be able to return to your family, Margherita," she said one day, as she supported the invalid to an easy chair near the window. Several Sicilians were here last week inquiring about you, but you were too weak to see them, and their Eng fish was so bad could not understand them."
 "I haf no family" Margherita said, sadly. "No padre, no madre, no mo- body"
 "But whom, then, do you live with?"
 "My people is good to me, but no blood like mine in dis country. Some day maybe I go back to Sicily; some day when I free again." AS she spoke the last words, with a shudder, her hand touched the black cord to which was suspended the small brass locket which held the doomed name.
 "Freel" echoed Miss Carroll, with a laugh. Everybody in this country is free. An, I understand! That is a love token, isn't it, Margherita? You held on to that locket like grim death if any one touched it, and now you want to be free from the lover who gave it to you."
 Margherita laughed scornfully. "A love token," she repeated, "yes, yes. Love and hatel love and hate But you understand not. An, no, can tell not, even you, for you are like the saints in heaven. An, Dio mio, I go away and see you no more What will Margherita do when de days go and de nights come, and de sweet, good face looks at me no more?" ~t
 She burst into tears and wept vehe- mently. To her passionate southern nature, adoring Helen as she did, it seemed as if she must die deprived of the sight of the woman whose kind eyes had looked at her, and whose sweet voice had spoken to her as no human being ever did before.
 "What will I dop" she cried. "I have no gladness to be we'll, when l see you no more!"
 "Listen," said Helen, touched to the soul. "Since you care 80 much you 1 chO m x,C nyx .k