News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-09-08

e "How am | to thank you?" h
e said. "But had / been here, you ant
e your child should not have been ex
t posed to this risk. My poor Doll.
v has scarlet fever"
| For the first time Mrs. Enderby
| took in what he meant. She turned
a little pale.
"Do you think, if 1 take precau
tions, that Archie
81 Think said the doctor decisive
ly, "that the best thing you can dc
with Archie is to send him away foI
a few weeks. The fever this year has
been peculiarly contagious"
Two or three tears dropped from
J the widows pretty eyes on her black
gown. The doctors heart smote him.
They were standing in Dolly's room,
and the girl suddenly cried out from
her bed: ''Mrs. Enderby, Mrs. En-.
derby, don't leave mel l hate that
nurse, and L want you to sit on the
bed by me and hold my hand"
"l'm not afraid myself" said Mrs
Enderby, "but am afraid to return
to Archie. Yes l will telegraph my
sister to come for my boy"
There was no question about Mrs.
Enderby's remaining that night, and
the next day little Archie was taken
away. Then the return of Mrs. En-
derby to her own house was mooted.
Dolly clung to her piteously, and
begged so that she would not leave
her, that nothing but a promise that
Mrs. Enderby would return within an
hour would pacify her.
For the next six weeks Mrs. Ender-
by might have been called an inmate
of DR.. Brooke's house, as she spent
more of her waking hours there than
i'll her own. Dolly, after a short but
violent attack, began to mend, and
Janet, too, was soon walking around
on crutch, but with their conva-
lescence their demands on Mrs. En-
derby increased. Early in the morn
ing Jack would slip oyer and ask
that she would come. Dolly had a
good night and felt cheerful and
wanted Mrs. Enderby to come over
and cheer her up. Then Janet and
Jack got fond of her with the exact
ing affection of the young and sent
for her on the slightest provocation.
Janet was apt to feel nervous at
night and want Mrs. Enderby for half
an hour before she went to bed, and
Jack would escort her back and forth
fifty times day if necessary.
Of course, the outcome of all this
was an offer on the doctors part. He
could but notice her grace, her gentle
GfPoT hot
his children and herself One night
when he came into Dolly's room and
saw Mrs. Enderby sitting in an arm
chair by Dolly's sofa, with Dolly's
hand in hers, and Janet on the other
side of her, while Jack lay on rug
at her feet, gazing at the fire, with
his fingers crossing corner of Mrs.
Enderby's drapery, it came over him
with a rush that Mrs. Enderby was
the sweetest woman in the world.
Widowers are proverbially awk-
ward in their courtships. Perhaps a
knowledge of the immensity of the
when handsome, sensible, gentlema n
| ly DR.. Brooke made an offer soon
after to Mrs. Enderby, in her own
drawing-room, he worded it so clums-
lily that he seemed to be proposing a
cooperative society, of which Dolly,
and Janet, and Jack, and Archie
were to be the beneficiaries, and was
met with point blank refusal.
Don't speak of it again. she had
said.
Il will not-I will not" answered
the doctor in low voice. "Only
you must know that it is at the cost
of a perpetual struggle. l will not
try to forget you, because l know it
is impossible, but l respect too much
the profound affection even if | did
not wish to spare you the annoy
ance."
He was gone. Mrs, Enderby felt
that these last few words almost
atoned for the aptness of his first
words. She walked up and down
once or twice. "They cannot now
say that | want to marry him." she
said triumphantly, and felt flushed
with victory. Yet there was some
thing like a coldness of disappoint-
ment upon her.
OF course, this put an end to Mrs
Enderby's going to DR.. Brooke's
house, even at Dolly's and Janet's
most urgent request.
But they were now almost well
again, and on fine days Jack would
bring the two girls-Janet still limp
ing little, and Dolly rather pale and
wan-over to Mrs. Enderby's; DIR.
Brooke did not put any bar upon
the continual presence of the children
in Mrs. Enderby's house. He wisely
left that thing alone.
But DR.. Brooke was suffering from
bitter disappointment. His CHEEKY,
handsome face took on stern and
troubled look. When he came home,
Dolly's and Janet's songs had no
power to charm him. He would sit
and look at the fire in a way that
would make the hearts of the children
ache.
One night as he sat thus, grave and
preoccupied, Dolly crept up to him.
She laid her cheek in the old way
against his bearded face. "Darling
papa" she said, "what is it that
troubles your"
DR.. Brooke held her close to him.
Her innocent sympathy did him
good.
Something my dearest, you can
not help" he said. Dolly, who was
queer girl, with strange, imaginative
fancies, slipped upon his knee.
"Papa, sometimes have thought
you won't be angry, papa?" The
doctor held her to his breast. He
had never been angry with her in all
his life.
Because" whispered Dolly in a
diffident whisper, sometimes I've
thought-if Archie's mother were our
stepmother-"
"There is no chance of that, my lit
tie girl" he said. "Would to God"
He stopped.
But Dolly knew it all. That night
in the moonlight she sat up in bed
and told Janet-and by the end of
the week Jack knew it. "and that's
why papa is so serious" said Dolly
in her soft voice.
All broke up because the widow
won't smile on him." unused Jack, TO
whom the tender passion was an in
scrutable mystery.
These young creatures talked their
fathers romance over with the keen
relish OF sixteen-year-olds for these
things. Only Janet was indignant.
"What can she expect if papa is not
good enough for her?" cried she
I, 4 l-SV