Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-31

Inc point Is. HOW 10 you cOluo uoTS,
and are you not ashamed to show
yourselfp
Flora" said John sepulchrally.
al haven't taken anything for three
days. Or, at least, / don't know
what day it is; but l guess I'm
starving"
"You unhappy man, she cried.
"Here, sit down and eat my supper;
and I'll just run upstairs and see my
patient, not but what doubt she's
fast asleep; for Maria is a malade
imaginairo."
With this specimen of the French,
not of Stratfordattc-Bo but Of a
finishing establishment in Moray
place, she left John alone in his
fathers sanctum. He fell at once
upon the food and it is TO be sup
posed that Flora had found her
patient wakeful, and been detained
with some details of nursing, for he
had time TO make a full end of all
! there was to eat and not only to
empty the teapot, but to fill it again
from kettle that was fitfully singing
on his fathers fire. Then he sat
torpid, and pleased and bewildered;
his misfortunes were then half for
| gotten; his mind considering, not
without regret, this unsCntimental
return to his old love.
He was thus engaged, when that
bustling woman noiselessly re-
entered.
"Have you eaten?" said she. Then
tell me all about it..
1t was a long and, as the reader
knows, q pitiful story; but Flora
heard it with compressed lips. She
was lost in none of those questionings
of human destiny that have, from
time TO time, arrested the flight Of
my own pen; for women, such as she,
are no philosophers, and behold the
concrete only. nd women, such aS
she, are very haid on tho imperfect
nan.
VERY WE'LL" said she, when he had
done; then down upon your knees at
once, and beg Gods forgiveness.
And the great baby pumped upon
his knees, and did as he was bid; and
none the worse for that! But while
he was heartily enough requesting
forgiveness on general principles, the
rational side of him distinguished,
and wondered if, perhaps the apology
were not due upon the other part.
! And when he rose again from that be-
coming exercise, he first eyed the face
of his old love doubtfully, and then,
taking heart, entered his protest.
Il must say, Flora" said he, "in
all this business | can see very little
fault of mine"
"lf you had written home" replied
the lady, there would have been
none of it. If you had even gone to
Murrayfield reasonably sober, you
would never have slept there, and the
worst would not have happened. Be-
sides, the whole thing began years
ago. You got into trouble, and when
| your father, honest man, was disap-
pointed, you took the pet, or got
afraid, and ran away from punish
ment. Well, you've had your own
way of it, John, and | don't suppose
you like it. p"
Il sometimes fancy I'm not much
better than a fool" sighed John.
My dear John" said she, mot
muchr
He looked at her and his eyes fell.
| A certain anger rose within him; here
was a Flora he disowned; she was
hard; she was of a set COLOR settled,
mature, undecOrative manner; plain
OF speech, plain of habit-he had
come near saying, plain of face. And
this changeling called herself by the
same name as the many-colored, cling
| ing child of yore; she of the frequent
laughter, and the many signs, and
the kind, stolen chances. And to
make all worse, she took the upper
hand with him, which Gas John well
knew was not the true relation of the
sexes. He steeled his heart against
this sick nurse.
'And how do you come to be here?"
he asked.
She told him how she had nursed
her father in his long illness, and
when he died, and she was left alone,
had taken to nursing others, partly
from habit, partly to be of some SER
vice in the world; partly, it might be,
for amusement. There's no account
ing for TASTE" said she. And she
told him how she went largely to the
houses of old friends, as the need
arose; and how she was thus doubly
welcome, as an old friend first. and
then a. an experienced nurse, to whom
doctors would confde the gravest
cases.
land, indeed, it's a mere farce my
being here for poor Maria" she con-
tinued; '.but your father takes her
ailment to heart, and | cannot always
be refusing him. We are great friends,
your father and l; he was very kind
to ne long ago-ten years ago."
A strange stir came in Johns heart
All this while had he been think II.
only of himself? All this while. why
had he not written to Flora? In PEN
itential tenderness. he took her hand,
and to his awe and trouble il re-
manned in his, compliant. A voice
told him this was Flora, after all
i L