Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-05-21
CHAPTER VIII.
COPYRIGHT BY AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION s'
A NEW Lease OF LIFE.

quiet street.
How different from the ominous roll
of the departing ambulance was the COM
ing of this jaunty carriage! When Miss
Maxey had listened to the first from the
parlor window, high above the street,
! her sympathetic heart felt as if a chill
breath from the icy river had touched it.
Now she waited at the top of the stairs
with rose in her hair.
Modern science had alone made this ar
rival possible. For the second time with
in the short period of few weeks brain
surgery had won another brilliant VIC
tory But there was that about this Sec
ond and more recent miracle which not
even Lamar himself could explain. That
the result had exceeded his most daring
hopes he had acknowledged, at least to
Maxey. To rescue from the grave trem-
bling paralytic victim, who realizes full
well his doom, and himself gives the
word which Iuti.o: ICES the dangerous
| operation as his Ia fearful chance, is
| great indeed, but to pour IA flood of
| fullest, frecSt light into the darkness
| worse than death chat cnshrOuds an in
| tellect is something SO far greater that it
rises at once out of the region of human
achievement into that unfathomed realm
of natures mysteries where the wisest
are as children No Lamar was too
scientific a man to believe this triumph
all his own, too honest to claim it as his
| own, but nevertheless the world would
count it his HencefOrth he would be
great among his fellows
The victim of the cliff road was still
in very sensitive and precarious state.
Her memory of even recent events
might fail her at times in the most
alarming manner, but her pulse was
normal, her appetite good, and every
day would show change for the better
every day away from the hospital,
surrounded by sympathetic faces, kind
voices and the quiet of home. So they
all believed So had the carriage come.
This was scarcely the same being who
once before had been carried by these
four strong arms from the street to the
artists rooms. That form had been sub
missive and leaden. This shrank in
maiden modesty from undue contact.
That face had been distorted with the
hideous nightmare of perpetual fear.
This glowed with all the sweet, shy,
womanly emotions that rise in the breast
of young girl whom necessity compels
to cling in this bold fashion to strangers
of the other sex She obeyed their in
StruCtionS to put her arms about their
nccks with trembling reluctance that
was too spontaneous to be counterfeit.
know not what philosOphic Dr.. Lamar
thought, but to Julian Maxey the trem-
ulOus touch of that almost transparent
little hand was a vague revelation of the
possibility of joy to come greater than
any he had ever known.
1t was toilsOme, climbing the long
flights of stairs i'll this slow, steady fash
ion, but it seemed to Maxey in his pres
cnt ccstatic frame of mind, with a bur-
den such as this TO carry, he would
willingly have kept ON mounting for
ever. As for the palpitating burden her
self, she was troubled with more senti-
ments than one. This removal, her des
tinatiOn, her new friends, We're so many
mysteries to her. The truth had purpose
ly been kept from her for a specific rea-
son, and she had been informed only
that she was to be taken to a more Sc
Guided place than the hospital, where
she would be surrounded by brighter in
huences and would get well the quicker.
Notwithstanding her weakness and
her trepidation at finding herself in the
arms of the strange men, she was seen
to glance with an expression of interest
and curiosity upon the house and the
entrance into which she was being tax
en-. In spite of DIR. Lamar's assurance
to tho contrary, Maxey hoped that she
re,
mates without q word to aid her. This
was the object of his silence to her. 1t
partOok of the nature of an experiment.
Miss Maxey, waiting for them in the
corridor, held the door open for them to
pass in. The girl looked at her in
mute, questioning manner, without a
shadow of recognition, that thoroughly
disappointed the artists sister, The
doctors strong tones were the first to
break the silence.
"Thcsc are your new friends, Miss
Dye. Here your home is to be as long as
you care to make it. From the time you
expressed a desire not to be taken back
to your father they resolved to bring you
here. -
They are very good to me, said
faint voice. But do they know that I
am poor girl without money to pay
them for their carer
They know everything that is neces-
sary.
Miss Maxey had drawn great chair
in front of the fire and had made it
doubly easy with pillows. The comfort
able back chamber was in state of or
der and neatness wonderful to behold.
Everything was in readiness for the re-
turn of the patient They placed her in
the chair and Maxey sighed as the cling
ing hand left its warm nesting place ON
his neck. Then they all stood back from
her, and she looked about, first at the
strange faces of the artist and his sister
and then at the various objects which
went to make up the character of the
room. Her glance wandered to the win
dows, with the fine prospect far away
and the ice clad river underneath, to the
piano, the pictures, the bookcases, even
to the little white bed in the alcove
room, the curtains of which had been
purposely drawn back that she might
see 1T.
Maxcy could not conceal his disap-
pointment. 1t was the glance of the
stranger. But there was another senti-
ment in the artists mind, even stranger
than this. In the anxious days when the
face which now looked up from the pill
lows in the easy chair lay on the bed in
the alcOve room Maxey had often
Catched it with an insufferable feeling
of regret and pity at his heart The deli
cate outline of the oval face and the
classic features, despite the unnatural
expression which distorted the counte-
nance and robbed it of its chief charm,
had whispered a sorrowful story of a lost
radiance that would have dazzled the
eyes of the beholder. And now, as the