The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1893-01-26
CHAPTER v.
TAKEN ILL.

moned, pronounced IL perlJonlGls.
And peritonitis 1T seemed; for it was
certainly painful, extremely painful.
Poor Mamma lay in agony, and
writhed and groaned with the spasms
that shot through her internally.
Every three hours Maisie had to give
her mixture; 10 which she added
something on her own account; and
she positively shrank from giving it,
so appalling were the effects. But she
had put her hand to the
plough, and couldn't afford to look
back. Let it cost what it might now,
she must go right through with it.
mamma fell i'll, Jose went back unex-
pectedly to Nebraska. Maisie didn't
doubt he'd gone back to institute d.
vorce proceedings on the ground OF in
sanity; and that was well enough in
it's way, as far as it went-but still, it
would have been so much lighter for
her if he'd remained in Washington
and called now and then at the house
to see her. Her loneliness and isola-
tion in this terrible crisis weighed
heavily upon her conscience. She
looked in her glass, and saw she was
growing haggard with suspense and
anxiety. If she lost her looks like
this, would Jose care for herr But
therel She was herself; and, as such,
she knew herself to be Jose's fate, to
be Jose's affinity.
Mamma was only i'll three days al
together; but to Maisie, those three
days were an awful eternity. 1t was
dreadful to see her lying there, racked
with pain and agony, and to know
one could do nothing on earth to ease
her-nothing, that is to say, without
spelling ones own plans and destroy
ing ones own future. Maisie clasped
her hands, and muttered ooh Jose,
Josef" On the third day, at last,
poor Mamma grew weaker. Maisie
saw with much relief that her suffer
ings would very soon be over. Thank
Heaven for that; for if they'd gone Oh
for twenty-four hours more, Maisie
really didn't know bow she ever could
stand it. 1t was driving her mad. 1t
was terrible, terrible.
And when at last Mammal lay quiet
ly dead on her bed, with her face now
relaxed and looking almost like her.
self again in its peaceful slumber,
Maisie was thankful to think she was
released from her misery-and that
now she could marry Jose Mansfield.
Still, there's many slip 'twixt the
cup and the lip; and Maisie began to
be terrified after all about the chance
of q post-mortem. So terrified was
she, that she even suggested it herself
to the medical man.
Don't you think, DIR. Cooeyman,"
she said with O. scared white face,
"there ought to he an autopsy? Poor
Mamma was taken so suddenly i'll,
you know, and it was all so quick;
and she died so unexpectedly"
But the doctor shook his head with
a very decided air.
"Not at all, my dear madam" he
said, authoritativelv. mo necessity
in the world. A very normal case of
peritonitis. It's most prevalent in
the city just now. This spell of cold
wind has brought a great deal of work
for us doctors. Half my patients are
down with various internal troubles.
That relieved Maisie much. She
breathed freely once more. The other
doctor conceded, to her intense sat-
isfaction. There need he no autopsy,
and nothing could come out. Only
in her own room at night did she ever
for q moment give way to her feelings.
And her outburst even then was
rather one of grief than of actual re-
morse. She felt alone in the
world, SO solitary and desolate.
After all, she'd been very fond
of poor dear Mamma. Nothing but
love for Jose would have induced her
-well-there-to add one Ingredient
to Mammals daily tonic.
AS soon as convenient, Mamma
was decently buried. Maisie might
have cremated her; but she wouldn't
on purpose. She desired scrupulous-
ly to avoid all appearance of evil. If
you cremate a corpse, people may be-
gin to ask in their ill-natured way,
why you want to get rid of it. But
if you bury it decently, you destroy
no evidence. And for her own pro-
lection, should any ugly whispers
hereafter arise, Maisie wanted the
evidence to be duly Forthcoming. Not
in vain had she studied that work at
the Smithsonian Institute. The drug
she had added to mammals tonic was
little known save to chemists and
psychologists, and difficult to procure;
but of such potency that no trace of
it can be detected by analysis. And
Maisie, being an intelligent girl, had
obtained 9 small supply in a way
that would have occurred to few wom-
en- save her.
A week or two more passed doubt
fully, TREMENDOUSLY: Maisie was much
engaged with her mourning and
other domestic arrangements. She
was wealthy now, and she had
q hard problem to .solve-hoW
to dress herself in deep black
yet in such becoming way
that she might prove as attractive as
ever to Jose Mansfield. And then
there was her complexion. That
needed much care. Were those crows
feet about her eyes? Was regret, or
remorse, or terror, or what you will,
beginning to make her less beautiful
than heretofore? She trembled to
think so. For her complexion's sake,
and Jose's, she must stifle remorse
she must stiae conscience. Before she
met Jose again she must get up her
strength, her form, her color She
must never be less lovely than when
he frat saw her. She must burst up
on him like o meteor-When she went
to Nebraska.
For she meant to follow Jose for
the present to Omaha, She heard
from him twice, since he left Washing
ton-letters in the same high flown
style as his conversation, letters full
of affection, vague, formless. occident-
al, but uncertain as to detail and
chaotic as so intention. And now
that poor dear mamma was gone, and
she was mistress of her own fortune,
and her own movements as well, she
must strike while the iron was hot,