The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-28

Va ASAJOuA f HF alam-H a.7fEg
The morning following ! was unable 10
eat. but refused to SOC 1 Doctor. All that
day ! remained seated ON the strand, watch.
ing the bathers In the wstsr. fat or thin,
and all hideous In their ~friRhtful costumes,
but I never dreamed Of laughing. Thought
they hsy. MOI b as1p Sllss .ai'' Tsp: sgD, viii '1 1--we:
they have nothing to fear. They car
amuss themselves as they like; they are
Every instant / put my hand to my nose
70 feel y. Was y swollen yet? And again
glass. Obi II u had changed color tho least
bit In the world ] should have died on the
spot.
That evening, for the first time, there
dawnsd in my heart a sort of tenderness
for my husband, the tenderness OF despair.
He was very patient. He seemed 70 me
good. ! hung upon his arm.
Twenty timAs, If once, l felt that I must
tell him my abominable secret, but I con-
strained myself Was silent.
Thu morning mail brought the reply from
my mother. She answered all OF my ques-
tions, but said never a word Of Biiou.
"Deadv'I said to myself. "Biiou ID
dead and they conceal IL from mev'
Then / Thought OF running to tho tele-
graph oelcs TO wire . message. Reflection
L UeOPEp~ AAVs - AO w00 MAGNAby NU&At ASbJO0
they would mover tell me. / resigned my
sself then TO two or three days of anguish
and wrote anew-very cunningly this time
desiring that they should send me the dog
that distracted mel was some little bored.
Strange tremblings Of the limbs took me
full glass without splitting half its contents.
The state Of my soul Was lamentable.
Toward twilight I escaped from my hns-
band and ran to the church. There / knott
and prayed q long, long while.
Returning, fresh pains-for the day a lit
tered q n%eighboring druggists shop One
OF my friends had been bitten BY q dog, I
told him. and demanded advice. He was
an amiable man n very obliging. He
gave me abundant directions. But / for
got everything AZ soon as he told me. 80
disturbed vas my mind: retained only
this: "Catnartics are frequently recon-
mended." And ! purchased, under pre-
text of dispatching them to my friend,
numberless bottles Of ! know not what.
Every dog that I encountered on the
street sent me into a cold chill and a mad
desire to fly with all my legs. It also
and bite.
Ny night was more aRitated than ever. In
the morning the second response from my
mother arrived: ''Bijou," said she, lis
very we'll. But it would too much expose
MIN to forward him thus. all alone on the
railway"
They would not send him to me then. He
was dead! l knew it!
Or course / could not sleep. As for Henri,
ne snored. lay as one in q trance.
With morning l came to a determined re-
solve. 1 would 90 in the water. I expected
to find myself seized at once on entering it,
n was seized-with a SILVER Of cold, a
tremor of the legs, but no pain at all in
my nose.
Later in the day the medical
inspector of the baths was presented to me,
a charming man, whom l led at once, with
q skill born of despair, to my terrible sub
ago my little dog had bitten me. What
should l do to prevent inflammation ?"
In your situation. madame responded
he, laughing, "but one thing can be done
you will have to get a new nosel"
l was neither moro advanced nor better
on leaving him.
Henri was very gay and happy all that
evening. We went to the Casino. but he
not wait till the end of the spectacle be-
fore he proposed to 90 home. Nothing had
any more interest for me ~resignedly i fol-
him.
But sleep or stay in bed I simply could
not; my nerves were too unstrung and vi
brating. Henri even OWNED it, and
he said nothing and asked no cues
tions, l felt instinctively that he knew how
| suffered. All at once, as he talked and tried
to distract me, a crisis, n sudden, e1traor-
binary crisis struck me like q thunderbolt. |
My throat seemed to close, my tongue to
swell, and | flung myself to the floor with |
! strangled ory. y II was the rabies.
the horrible rabies! l was lost!
Wild with alarm, Henri caught me in his
and besought me to speak to him. /
was resigned and simply awaited death.
How long before a fresh crisis would seize
then another and another, till the last.
which would be mortal?
Henri placed me in bed and did his best
20 soothe me. All in vain, the rabies had
and more enraged than the first. /
to, tear something, to bite, to howl
loud.
It was nearly eight in the morning when,
It last exhausted, l slept for the first time
n four nights. was still sleeping when
It noon a beloved voice awakened me. 1t
vas mamma, whom my letters had fright
ned almost to death, and who had FASTENED
o see me. In her hands was a basket,
whence at intervals came a Smothered zap,
ap!
Bewildered, half mad with hope. l caught
!. opened it and Bijou leHped to the bed,
licking, paving, gamboling over my pill
DIV, frenzied with Joy.
Oh! the imagination, the imagination
ow it works!
But never, dearest, never, as you can
omprehend, have l confessed to any one
ut you the real story and tortures of those
our cruel days. Think OF it. if my hus-
and had really known! He leases me
nough as it is, with my fright at Dieppe.
till. his pIaaaantrieR do NOT %aariouslx an.