The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1894-09-25

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.
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 cheerfulness. 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 a 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 seeded" said
Mrs. Gasparez.
Il ave little fever at night some
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, F" said
Ellen heartily. rs she nice girl?'
my, yesl She is beautee 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
rupeesr
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
hveliness when John Port 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
Dack, and then she went away and
looked at herself in tho glass with new
eyes.
II do wish it didn't make one SO
plain for so long, she said to the worn
face and ungainly figure she saw re-
hected there.
And all this while Ellen took no heed
Of the new world round her. She heard
the wedding music from the surging
ways of the native town, and she said,
''Wen, they are making noise. " She
saw the dead slowly borne past the lit
tie pink house to the funeral pyre, and
she said: They're going to burn i'm.
Isn'tit 'orrid?' She lived in India save
for the wide difference of heat, discom-
fort and loneliness, exactly as she would
have lived in England. The only native
with whom she held anything approach
ing to speech was Abdool, a craven rep
resentative indeed, and the conclusion
she drew from her study Of his char
acter was that they were "a dirty lot "
She took no interest in her surround
ings. The little pink house in its wealth
of strange flowers was only pleasing to
her because it had been allotted to her
husband, and she trusted the garden
would look more homelike when child
played there She watched the long line
of rails down which Johns train would
come without a thought of what the
land had been before the wonderful iron
road traversed it. There was no romance
for her in the widely varying tracts that
train came through, and she had no de-
sire to see more of the country in which
her lot was cast. 1.-THE gorgeous east"
held for her neither glamour nor glory.
Her days were passed in an endless sue
cession of small duties and in secretly
hoping that she would feel better to-
morrow.
Toward the end of November Abdool
ran over to Mrs Gasparez's house one
morning with an urgent message
MY" said Mrs. Gasparez as she
caught up solah topee, "onlee seven
month";
That was at breakfast time, and John
Port was away up the line and would
not return till the morning of the next |
day.
81 am sorry to bother you, said Ell
len through her agony, ''but was that |
bad all night, and did want some one
to speak to. .
"Ooh, 1 will stay gladlee, said
Mrs Gasparez, land will send for the
doctor, and you viii soon be ahl right. "
The doctor came presently and went
and came again. Mrs Gasparez wept |
fluent tears over the sufferings that |
could not be allayed, even as she said,
"Ooh, you will be ahl right veree
soonr' Ellen lay with clinehed teeth,
trying not to writhe or cry out II do
ate to give You all this trouble, "shesaid
often.
''But she was strong" said Mrs
Gasparez to the doctor in tho next room.
"She worked so hard she did, ooh, ev-
erythingl | am not strong, but was
never like this, never.
''She has worn herself out, ?" said the
doctor. THE climate counts for some
thing and she has never considered it, "
Some time after midnight the child
was born-a dead child--and the doctor
went to Mrs Gasparez's house for a lit
tie rest Mrs. Gasparez sat nodding and
blinking and drinking strong tea, and
Ellen seemed to be sleeping.
Just before dawn Ellen reused herself
and talked for few minutes to Mrs.
Gasparez. She had a message to leave
with her
"Ooh, no; you are not going to der
sobbed Mrs Gasparez. go to sleep
again and do not DO so sillee. The next
babee will live and it win ahl be jol
lee y
Ellen smiled family Don't you for
get, she whispered and turned her
head on the pillow, but instead of going
to sleep her face changed and worked
strangely, and Mrs Gasparez ran out
calling wildly for the doctor. Ellen's
last doleful scene was acted alone, but
1t must have been ashort one, for when
Mrs Gasparez and the doctor came
back they found her dead.
John Port train came in at 2 O'Clock.
The doctor met him and told him of his
wife's death, but he did not realize or
understand what had happened till he
came to the little pink house. Abdool
was in the veranda lamenting ostenta-
tiously, but Port put him aside and
went into the bedroom. It smelt stuffy
and sickly after the fresh morning air,
and it was exceedingly untidy. A white
sheet was thrown over the bed, and
Mrs Gasparez, her eyelids puffy with
crying and want of sleep, came to meet
him.
II have a message for you, she said.
~ WINS To rivn Won hnr love and she