San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-30
CHAPTER V.

The hours that they had fixed on for
her coming were in the morning from
twelve till two. "Our readings will be
rather severe and solemn things, am
afraid" Helen said with a laugh, be-
fore they began; but when they really
began she was to a large extent pleas
antly disappointed, for the grave sad
woman discovered certain power when
her mind was occupied and interested
by the book she read, of to some extent
throwing aside her sadness. She struck
a sort of chill on Helen on the first
morning when she came into her room,
and took the chair that had been placed
for her, and, after very few formal
words, asked and obtained the book she
was to read from; but ten minutes
afterward Miss Lynn was lying back in
her invalid-chair. with her knitting laid
upon her knees, listening. with sense
of conscious pleasure to the sound of
Esther's voice. Not that Mrs. Hill read
in any remarkable or exceptional way.
She simply read well, as any intelligent,
sweet-voiced woman might who had
some practice in the art of reading
aloud and was fond of it. She read no
better than Helen had hoped that she
might do, except in one particular
Though that an important one)-that
her mind seemed to be with her book,
not with herself or her own troubles.
Helen had expected that it would be
otherwise, but it was not, though
whether the book involuntarily expelled
the thought of her troubles, or whether,
by strong exercise of will, she forced
her mind to withdraw itself from them
while she read.-thiS Helen could not
tell. All that she could perceive was
the result, and the result was uneXpect-
ed by her. The voice lost its coldness
as she read. the face lost its rigid look,
the woman-thawed beneath the human
and wholesome influence of thoughts
that were not her own thoughts, and
that had no bearing on her own life.
Perhaps she began by saying to herself
IL am hired to do this thing: | must
force myself to forget myself, that /
may do it WE'LL" but if she did this she
seemed to come presently to forget her
self unconsciously.
~ dare say you know this book al
ready,-but do you mind reading what
you have read before?" Helen had said
to her as she handed her the volume she
had chosen.
II am afraid care for what l have
read more before than for most new
things" Mrs. Hill had answered; and
then she took the book, and read it as if
she loved it.
Yes, know it: l knew it long ago,
when l was young,n she said in reply to
a question from Helen when the two
hours had ended.
And then, when she said this
"When you were young? Are you not
young now?" Helen ventured to ask
her with little laugh; But the face had
got back its mask then that had been
half lifted from it for little while, and
there came no answer for a moment,
and then only the cold reply
II mean that l knew it five or six
years ago."
And how old were you then?" Helen
asked.
Helen was still lying in her reclining
chair, with her head thrown back upon
the pillows. During these last two
hours she had not taken her eyes very
often from Esther Hills face, and now
she put this sudden question to her with
that half insolence in questioning that
some invalidS seem to consider a pleas
ant privilege of invalidism.
Mrs. Hill turned round as it was ask
ed her, and looked for a moment in
Helen's face: then something that was
like half smile came for an instant
across her lips,-the partially amused,
partially scoTnful smile that you might
give to some foolish question of child,
and
II am 6ve-and-twenty now. Why do
you want TO know" she said.
Because 1 have been wondering.
Only and-twentyl-and am twen-
ty-threel" said Helen, with a curious
information in her voice. Day after day,
punctual to a minute, Esther Hill came
to her engagement. 1t was sunny sum-
mer weather, the walk from her lodg-
ings about half mile, the way for the
most part a pleasant way by road
shaded with elm-trees and lines. "HOw
peaceful this isl" she used to say to her
self. She would throw back her veil
sometimes when the road was free from
passers by, and linger little in the
sunshine,-a if she had loved it once,
in the days before her life had died out
Of her.
Regularly every day she read to Helen
for her appointed two hours. Helen
would sometimes rather have talked
than read,-would dearly have liked, if
she could have had her way, rather to
lie in that invalid-chairo of hers, and put
questions to the woman at her side; but
that woman had her own will too, which
proved stronger than Helen's, and Miss.
Lynn very soon discovered that the plan
of extorting anything from Mrs. Hills
lips that those lips did not choose to ut
ter, by questioning however dexterous,
was a plan that did not answer. A few
trifling facts concerning her former life,
she succeeded in extracting from her;
then one day, quietly and resOlutely,