Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-07-23
eide lay together side by side on the

| She neAru Une SOunu OF VOlceS-Sne(
saw two men leaning over her, she
heard q shout, and she knewno m ore
until she opened her eyes and found
herself in strange room.
"Where am I?' she said.
A kind voice answered her:
"You are all right"
She looked up and recognized the
doctor she had been to fetch on the
previous night.
"Oh, dear!'' she said, "however did
I come here? Let me go home.
They'll be wondering what has be-
come of me-
Then she remembered something
of what had happened. "The young
lady," she said, twas she drowned"
"No." said the doctor, "you saved
her, but you mustn't talk any more
yet awhile. You shall know all
about it presently"
Flows missus?"
Gas we'll as can be expected, and
SOS the baby
"That's ali right said Mary, with
deep sigh, and then the wicked
grip closed her eyes and dropped off
to sleep again.
When Mary had quite recovered
from the excitement and terror of
the nights adventure and was able
to get up, the doctor told her all
about it,
The young lady she had seen COM
ing out of his house was young
lady patient who had been staying
with him and his wife for the benefit
of her health. She had had a love
disappointment and had given way
to melancholia.
The night that the doctor was call
ed out the young lady was awakened
by the ringing of the bell. The nurse,
who had been suffering from neu-
ralgia, had taken an opiate to make
her sleep, and the young lady must
have opened the door and crept down
stairs noiselessly in her night dress,
and walked on into the street.
Then she saw the sea. and the idea
of suicide came into her poor, wan
dering mind.
But for Mary's lost latch key hav-
ing brought her back to thespot, the
young lady's body would probably
have been found the next day on the
beach, or perhaps picked up at sea.
When Mary got back to Prospect
Mansion, missus, of course, was up
stairs in bed, but cook received her
and tossed her head, and said it was
a nice thing for respectable servant
gals to go a-roaming the street at
night and jumping into the sea, and
she never heard Of such things"
She wanted to call Mary a wicked
gail" but she didn't quite see how to
do it.
Mr.. Perkins seemed very much up
set, and looked more scared and
dazed than usual. The affair had
made great deal Of commotion in
Hastings. and people called at the
house to make inquiries about it.
1t had got into the papers. too, and
this Mr.. Perkins, on his wife's behalf,
resented.
Mary went about her work as
though nothing had happened, simp-
ly gra teful that she hadn't been dis
charged for her carelessness in losing
the latch key and her wickedness in
rescuing young women from the ocean
instead of hurrying home to wait on
her missus.
But instead of being punished for
her wickedness she was rewarded. A
few days after she had resumed her
domestic duties, and just as she was
settling down into her old wicked
habits of leaving the bucket on the
stairs and the dustpan on the draw
ing-room sofa. and answering the
front door with a dirty apron on,
and stopping the gravy from the
Joint on the stair carpet, the doctor
arrived with an old gentleman and
requested to see Mary Jones.
Mary came up into the hail. cook
listened at the top Of the kitchen
stairs, the missus had the bedroom
door wide open to catch what she
could, and master hung so far over
the banistars on the drawing room
floor that he Was in imminent danger
once or twice of falling bodily into
the hall below.
And this is what they heard: The
old gentleman was the father of the
young lady. To show his gratitude
for Mary Jones' bravery, in plung-
ing into the sea to save the life of
his unfortunate daughter, he had
come to make her an advantageous
offer.
He would pay into a bank for her
a sum OF money sufficient to enable
her to start in any little business
she chose, or, if she was engaged to
be married, he would start her and
her husband in a nice little lodging
house, or any business they might
wish to buy.
"Was Mary engaged?''
Mary blushed.
She wasn't exactly engaged, but
she walked out when she had a Sun
day of:-which wasn't often III the
season-with the bakers young man
and some day they had thought OF
getting married.
"The bakers young MAXWELL, I
novorT' exclaimed cook on tho ton IF