The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-22
CHAPTER ".

CHAPTER ".
There is nothing more usual than to say
that could we but know the life history
of the first halfdozen persons we meet
with on any road, we should find tragic
details and unexpected lights and shadows
far beyond the reach of fiction, which no
doubt is sometimes true, though some
times the first half-dozen might be found
to cash, like the knife-grinder, with a
"Story2 Lord bless you. I have none
to tell. sir" This to besme, would be 10
argument for our histories are not fire.
ouently unknown to, or at least unappre-
GATED by ourselves, and the common hu-
man sense is against any accumulation Of
wonders in a small space. l am almost
ashamed to say that the two people who
have inhabited one above the other two
separate floors of my house in Blooms
bury. had a certain singularity and unus-
ualness in their lives, that they were not
as other men or women are, or to speak
more clearly, that being as other men
and women are, the circumstances Of
their lives created round them an atmos-
phere which was not exactly that Of com
mon day.
When DR.. Roland recounted to Miss
Bethume the story of Mr.. Mannering
that lady shut her lips tight in the par
tial shadow of the screen, to restrain the
almost irrepressible murmurs of revela-
ton equally out of the common which be-
Ionged to herself That is she was
tempted to utter aloud what she said in
her soul. ''Oh, but that is like mew
s'Oh but would never have done that"
comparing the secret in her own life,
which nobody in this place, suspected,
with the secret in her neighbours which,
at least to some few persons, was known.
Poor Mr. Mannering! there was
strange kind of superiority and sage sat
isfaction in pitying his fate, in learning
all the particulars of it, in assuring her
self that Dora was quite ignorant, and
nobody in the house had the least suspi-
cions, while at the same time secure in
the consciousness that she herself was
wrapped in impenetrable darkness, and
that not even this gossip of a doctor could
divine her There is an elatiOn in know
ing that YOU too have a story, that YOUR
own experiences are still more profound
than those of the others whom you are
called upon to pity, and wonder over, that
did they but know which, perhaps is
not like the more ordinary citation of con
o. ~
ness.
There was certain dignity swelling in
Miss Bethuue'S figure as she rose to shake
hands with the doctor, as if she had
wrapped a tragic mantle round her. as if
she dismissed him like a queen on the
edge of ground too sacred to he trodden by
any vulgar feet He was conscious of it,
vaguely, though not of what it was He
gave her a very keen glance in the shad-
n that kpRnpr OhCnrVar
than DIR. Roland was not easily to be met
Without then his observations were gen
orally turned in one particular way, and
the phenomena which he glimpsed on
this occasion did not come within the
special field of his inquiries He
perceived them, put he could not classify
them, in the scientific narrowness of his
gaze.
Miss Bethune waited until the we'll
known sound of the closing of DR. Ro-
lands door downstairs met her ear, and
then she rang violently, eagerly for her
maid. What an evening this was, among
all the quiet evenings on which nothing
happened-an evening full of incidents,
of mysteries, and disclosures. The sound
of the bell was such that the person sum
mOned came hurrying from her room,
well aware that there must be something
10 be told, and already breathless with
interest. She found her mistress, walk
ing up and down the room, the screen
discarded, the fan thrown down, the very
shade on the lamp pushed up so that it
had the tipsy air of a hat placed on one
side of the head "Oh, Gilchrist!" Miss
Bethune cried.
DR. Roland went as he always went.
briskly but deliberately down stairs. If
he had ever run up and down at any pc
riod of his life, taking two steps at a
time, as young men do, he did it no lon
l., - L. H. ~ 1
wore a ''PlnceneZ,' and was never sure
that between his natural eyes, with
which he looked straight down at his
feet, and his artificial ones which had a
wider circle he might not miss a STEP
which accounted for the careful, vet rap
id character of his movements. The
door which Miss Bethune waited to hear
him close was exactly below her own.
and filed in DR. ROland's life theco joint
positions of waiting room, dining room
and library. His consulting room was
formed of the other half looking to the
back and shut of from this by folding
doors and closely drawn curtains.
All the piles of Illustrated News
Graphic, and other picture papers, along
with various well-thumbed pictorial NOl
unes. the natural embellishments of the
waitlng-rOOm, were carefully cleared
away. and the room, with DR. ROland's
char drawn near a cheerfully blazing fire
MS reading lamp, ms book, ana his even
ing paper on his table, looked com Portable
enough. 1t was quite an ordinary room il
Bloomsbury, and he was quite an ordinary
man. Nothing remarkable the reader
will be glad TO hear had ever happened
70 him. He had gone through tn,
usual studies. he had knocked about the
world for number of years he had seer
life "a d many incidents i'm other peoples
stories both at home and abroad. Bu
nothing particular had ever happened L
himself He had lived. but if he Ia.
loved, nobody knew anything about that
He had settled In Bloomsbury some foai
Or hve years before and he had grown
INTO steady not too overwhelming prac
tlce. His speciality was the treatment @.
dyspepsia and other evils OF q sedentary
NE and his patients We're chiefly men
the men OF offices and museums among
"hom be had o great reputation This
was ms official character not much Of
lamlly adviser but strong % rout tht
mon mend and the demons OF indigestion
Wherever encountered But m his pri
NaIe capacity DR.. Roland character wa.