San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-25


"How kind of you, Mr.. Kendall" she said,
advancing with her quick, impulsive step
towards him. Il thought you had forgotten
us, and 1 have been wanting your advice so
badlyI have just been complaining Of you
a little in a letter TO Nine de Chateauvieux!
She"--
Then she suddenly stopped, checked and
startled by his face. He was always color
less and thin, but the two nights he had just
passed through had given him an expression
of haggard exhaustion. His black eyes
seemed to have lost the keenneSS which was
so remarkable in them, and his prematurely
gray hair gave him almost look of age in
spite of the l.ghtness and plianCy of the fig
urC.
He came forward and took her hand nerv-
ously and closely in his own.
Il have come to bring you sad news" he
said, gently, and seeking anXlously word by
word how he might soften what, after all,
could not be softened. IN. de ChateauvieuX
sent me to you at once, that you should not
hear in any other way. But it must be a
shock TO you-for you loved her."
"Ohl" she cried, interrupting him, speak
ing in short, gasping words, and answering
not so much his words as his look. She is
ill-she is in danger--somethlng has hap
penedp
81 was summoned on Wednesday," said
Kendall, helpless, after all, in the grip of the
truth, which would not be managed or CON
trolled.
when got there she had been two days
i'll, and there was no hope"
He paused; her eyes of agonized question
ing impIored him to go on. Il was with her
six hours-after l came she had no paint
was quite peaceful, and-she died in the even
ing"
She had been watching him open eyed,
every veSti-o of color fading from cheek and
lip; when he stopped, she gave a little cry.
He let go her hand, and she sunk into chair
near, SO white and breathless that he was
alarmed.
shall get you waterT' he asked after a
moment or two, bending over her.
mo-" she whispered with difficulty; ''let
me alone-just for a minute"
He left her side and stood leaning against
the mantelpiece, waiting anxiously. She
struggled against the physical oppression
which had seized upon her, and fought it down
bravely. But he noticed with a pang, now
that the flush was gone, that she looked
fragile and worn, and as his thought went
back for a moment to the Surrey Sunday
and her young rounded beauty among the
spring green, he could have cried out in use
less rebellion against the unyielding physical
conditions which press upon and imprison
the flame of life.
AT last the faIntnesS passed off. and she sat
up, her hands clasDed round her knees, and
the tears running fast over her cheeks. Her
grief was like herself-frank, simple, ex-
pressive.
"Will You tell me more about it? Oh,
cannot believe it! Why, only last week,
when | was i'll, she talked of coming to mel
have just been writing to her-there is my
letter l feel as if could not bear it: she
was like mother to Inc in PARIS. Oh, if l
could have seen her!
"Gou were one of her chief thoughts at
the last" said Kendall, much moved. And
be went on to tell her the story of Maries
uy Ing hours, describing that gentle with
drawal from life with manly tenderness of
feeling and quick memory for all that
could soften the impression Of it to the lis
tener. And then he brought out the minia-
ture and gave it to her, and she accepted it
with fresh burst Of sorrow, putting it to
her lips, studying it, and weeping over it
with an absolute spontaneity and self aban-
Comment, which was lovely because it was so
true
oh, poor NJ. de Chateauvieux!" she cried,
after long pause, looking up to him How
Will he live without her? He will feel himself
so fOrsakenw
YES" said Kendall huskily, ''he will be
very lonely, but-One must learn to bear it,"
She gazed at him with quick, startled SYM
.pathy, and all her womanly nature seemed
to rise into her Upturncd face and vearuiuc
eyes. 1t was as though her attention had
been specially recalled to him; as though his
particular loss aid sorrow were brusuuelv
brought home TO her And then she vas
struck by the Straagene>5 and unexpected
ness OF Such meeting between them lie
had been to her judge, an authority, an
embodied standard. His high mindedness
had won her confidence: his affection for his
sister lad touched and charmed her. But
She had :.-.vr been conscious of any intimacy
with bis. Sull less had she ever dreamed of
"harln,- common grief with him, of weep
InC at his side And the contrast between
her old relation with him and this new sol
ernn experience rushing in upon her filled her
with emotion. The memory of the Nuneha.n
day woke again in her-of the shock between
her nature and his, of her overwhelming
sense of the intellectual difference between
them, and then Of the thrill which his YER
dict upon ''Elvira" had stirred in her. Tho
relation which she had regarded as 4 mere
and friendly one, but which had
been far more real and important to her than
even she herself he'd ever guessed, seemed to
have transformed itself since he had entered
the room into something close and personal. |
His last words had called up IN her a sharp |
of ba