The herald., 1894-10-31


over and kicked into corners. The
clothes of the household seemed to have
the habit of straying and were to be
met in unexpected places. The boots
and shirts of Mr.. Gasparez, the brilliant
raiment of his wife and the tattered lit
tie garments of the children had alike
40 abiding city. Nothing, indeed, was
| in its right place. The baby was lulled
! to fitful slumber in an armchair, while
o tailor, hired for the day, squatted
sewing ON a childs cot. Mrs. Gasparez IS
abundant hair was generally brushed
and oiled ON the front veranda, and the
| three elder children ate strange meals
at odd hours sitting ON the floor of any
room they happened to be in, surround
| ed by servants, puppies and tame birds.
| Presently Ellen tried, both by precept
! and practice, to instill little order into
! the chaos, but Mrs. .Gasparez, stout in
white dressing gown, only laughed at
| her efforts:
"Ooh, you are veree silleei What does
| it matter? Wait till the babies come to
your house, and then you will not be so
| particularlee neat. "
Although Ellen was too courageous to
make any confessions, the cruel heat of
Bengal summer was revelation OF
terror to her. She fought the heat with
her favorite prescription Of hard work.
Indeed her husband, who was great
deal away, hardly realized how much
she did. She cooked and cleaned, she
mended and made clothes, she even
washed clothes sometimes, earning
thereby bitter headaches and the scorn
of her neighbor, but a firm sense OF
right sustained her
''Just think of what I'd be doing at
'ome, john" she pleaded when her
husband noticed that her fresh face had
grown white and her light step heavy.
81 don't come out 'ereto spend all your
money ON living like fine lady, and
yet ere don't need to wash my own
dishes, and that Abdool is learning to
cook quite nice. E can do lots Of things
already. And, as for washing wouldn t
your sister think 'erself in clover at
'ome with sun like this to dry and
bleach the clothes? You let me ave my
own way, John. I can't sit idle and
shall ave to be do nothing for bit
when the New Year comes" And at
the thought her needle sped more swift
ly through the little white garment she
was making.
John thought her looking i'll, but he
supposed it was natural and inevitable,
and she never complained.
Then the rains came-at first a re-
spite from torment, presently torment
in themselves A clinging, penetrating
damp infected everything. The tank
overhowed, and the green garden be-
came a dismal swamp, tenanted by
many frogs. whose barking kept Ellen
from sleeping A broad dado of damp
showed itself on the walls Of the little
pink house, and thin film of blue mold
spread over their most cherished treas
ures. Ellen tried stoves i'll vain; nothing
could get rid Of what she called ''mush-
room smell" John Port had several at
tacks of fever-sharp, short attacks such
as he had grown accustomed to and
thought very little Of, but it was terri
BILE to Ellen to hear him raving in de-
lirium. She attached no Importance to
her own sufferings from neuralgia,
though a spike of pain seemed to be
piercing through her left temple and
was her constant attendant all day long
II don't believe in giving in," said
Ellen when the autumn fever smote her
in turn, and the ground seemed to glide
from her tired feet, and objects were
three times their right size to weary
eyes, whose very lids felt hot. "Just
think of the colds / should ave been
getting at ome," she repeated. with
persistent oheerfulness. 1.-The influenza
again most likely, and don't you talk
nonsense about this climate being SO bad
for me-" said Ellen to her husband.
After the first few months, after
health and high spirits had tagged,
came terrible nostalgia, and that, too,
was hidden from John Port. He never
guessed the passion of longing for her
own people that filled his wife's heart,
and it was very rarely expressed in her
letters home; but, none the less, it was
an ever present pain
MY. you are looking seedee!" said
Mrs Gasparez.
times, "said Ellen, 'but it's nothing,
and suppose it will get cooler every
day now"
"Ooh, yes, it will soon be albright,
and have some news to tell you. My
sister is coming to stay with me-my
youngest sister, Miss de Cruz
''That will be pleasant for you, >" said
Ellen heartily. ''Is she nice girl?''
''My, yesl She is beauteel Eyes
that big, hair SO long, and her figure,
ooh, so loveleel She will have monee,
too, some day, for my old grandmother
is very fond of her and says she will
leave her ahl she has, ever so nance
rupeesp
Miss de Cruz was brought to call
few days later-a big girl, plump and
shapely, with magnificent eyes. She
yawned openly through Ellen's attempts
to talk and frightened to coquettish
liveliness when John Pert came into
the room.
''That's fine, handsome girl, fine,
strapping girl" said John Port later.
Then, with clumsy laugh, "You aren't
much to look at now, old woman.
True enough" said Ellen, laughing
back, and then she went away and
looked at herself in the glass with new
eyes.
81 do wish it didn't make one 80
plain for so long," she said to the worn