The Penn's Grove record., 1889-02-23
HER OPPORTUNITY.

HEN UGIOhIU UNI
DR.. Mary shook the snow from her
black Astrachan cap, unfastened her
cloak with a quick, professional ar
making the most of every minute,
drew of her articles and sat down
before her cheerful open fire, with a
discouraged sigh. A lady busily writing
on the other side of the room looked
up, with her pen poised in mid air ana
o mildly interrogalive arching or the
brows. She knew all DIR. Mary's way,
and was discreetly silent.
The doctor sighed again, and gave
the fire an impatient poke. She knew
the nervous system, root and branch,
yet had her little tempers like N
ordinary woman without q scientific
bias.
Yes, l know what you're waiting
for, Eudora Blake. You are holding
your precious pen 'twixt heaven q
earth, like Mahomet's coffin, waiting
until my wrath chooses to explode. l
suppose l have interrupted the thread
of your love story, bps as long as you
depend on me for hints from real fife,
you will have to take them as they
Gomez
Eudoia slowly turned her eyes upon
her friend.
"A little tired, aren't you, dearI' she
said meditatively. You make too
many visits in one day. Don't let your
own vital springs run down, trying to
keep other people in repair g.
She dipped her pen in the inkstand.
and scribUled a sentence or two.
Trying to keep them In repairl Yes,
that's Just the trouble exclaimed DIR.
MaIy. Il might try till the day OF
doom, and they would go on violating
one hygienic law after another, ILL 1t
makes ones soul sick within him.
What do you suppose l found Bridget
Dolan doing this afternoon Pat was
dead drunk on the bed, and she was
washing with her t~wo-weeks-old baby
tucked away in n corner OF the table,
and breathing the steam at the rate of
40 respirations per minute. Bridget
herself looked hardly able to stand.
Tomorrow they will send for me post
haste to attend both mother and child,
and then Systematically disobey every
| Injunction l give them. wish it we're
! possible to find n human being whom
l could truly help 4.
She passed her shapely hands across
her forehead, and brushed back the
short dark hair from the temples to
relieve the nervous tension.
Eudora Blake came to the fire and
spread her fingers to the blaze.
THE world is full Of people to be
helped. You will find the right one
some day. Do you remember the SEN
tence in Little Dorrittp In our course
through life We meet the people who
are coming to meet us from many
strange places and by many strange
roads; and what is set us to do TO them,
and what is set them to do to us will
all be done.'
THAT is as solemn as the t0lling of q
funeral bell,' said DIR. Mary. what
overshadowing things you do pick up.
Eudoral / suppose if 1t should be my
fate to administer a dose OF poison to a
patient, l should do 1t In spite of all
nv care and w~atchfulness. 1t will all
be done. 1t will all be donei'
She lighted the gas and made tea for
Eudora and chocolate for herself. They
Kept house together to save expense,
and for the pleasure OF each others
company, taking turns at the simple
household duties. The romance of life
had faded out for both, and now they
were sober women with a purpose.
DIR. Mary,s Office was in the neighbor.
hood Of Riggs court. The place had
been selected with a purpose. The
rich have physicians enough said the
doctor. y will minister among those
who faint by the wayside in sight of
priests and Levites.'
1t must not be understood that DR..
Mary said this IN any self.righteous OR
complacent spirit. 1t was only her
6gurative way Of putting things.
Riggs court was OF the CRIME,
prin,y. Its morals were as lar removed
from immaculate wilderness as were the
wretched yestments which fiuttered on
long lines from window to window
when Riggs court had a washing day.
Yet DR.. Mary did not always despair.
The day after this sketch begins, she
was walking toward her office, when
her attention was drawn TO awoman
staggering in front Of hers and holding
| a; intervals to the area railways Of tile
dingy tenements. The doctor quickened
her pace. 1t was such an old, old
story; yet her heart yearned over this
moor tossed creature. She laid her hand
on the woman's arm and said:
MY friend N5r 50
The woman turned upon her such a
| face as Marian Erie must have shown
To- her tormentors when, as she tells
Aurora Leigh:
sDThey feared my eyes and loosed me, rs boy
might
A mad dog which t6ey had tortured"
a fac In which the hollow cheeks
| named with fever. and the eyes cleaned
with a woeful desperate light.
pm not drunk. Don't think II. Pm
-only-starvingl' ~ AZ
'Yes,' said Dr.. Mary. \ know it
now.' -.MAE
oa ,e, and she supported tile trembling
figure till she had sued tie woman In
t6e easy-chair before The file.
,Gustaye Ito the lie Swedish office
girl run to the eatin Iousa around the
| corner for a new DO, OF hot coffee and
a quart OF oyster protl, as quickly as
possible. Take this rise. 1 can't walt
to count the money!
The blue-eyed, ia l.braided Morse
maiden dew TO DC be MISTRESS bidding,
J and the doctor CAT The hands Of the
-