The record-union., 1894-09-29

ing to the one lying there of some pleas
ant cathedral nave. He knew the room.
1t was where, in the old days, his troth
had been pllghted with girlish Mary
Brice.
HIS eyelids closed again, and be thought
he heard the whisperings OF the breeze
through the rustling frs, the chattering
and low songs of the birds within the
shrubbery, even the measured throb
of The sea against its walls. He had
known and loved these sounds in his
youthtide, long ago.
By and by IL seemed as If he caught
another old-time sound within the room,
the steady click of a needle somewhere
near his head.
He will look, he thinks, but his head
will not move, and then his unsteady
glance ahghts upon his own hand. 1t is
so like skeletons that he imagineS he
smiles grimly. But the hand, If but q
row of bones now, weighs incalculable
tons and falls somewhere with rattle?
be wonders among the folds of the snowy
counterpane. a quick ear has heard
even so slight a movement as this. There
are soft and hurried footsteps. Then a
woman's figure is bending over him. he
cannot see, but in her eyes are unutterable
longing, infinite patience, unspeakable
dread.
She gazes into his dull eyes an instant;
rests one OF her palms upon his forehead
and hands with questioning touch, WhlS-
pers to herself THANK God! He is out
of danger nowv' returns TO her table and
rereads for the thousandth time tele-
gram, more than month old now, from
Elijah Whitaker, which says: keep
on forgetting her. Be as though she was
nothing to you. She's humping along
like raft in shallow water; but if you
care for her, your own future or the fu-
ture of them that's more than helpless,
quit sending kilograms, and don't come
back here till | give the wOrdr'-when
she stands and looks far out upon the
sea. repeating pitifully to herself: "If it
had not been tor her. Oh, if it had not
been for that!''
a gurgling sound as if the invalid
would speak, brings her instantly to his
side with cheerful. smiling face. She
lifts him little upon his pillow, feeds
him tiny bits of broken ice, and finds
that his emaclated hand is clinging fast
to her own.
"Mary!-Mary Bricer' the almost mo-
tionless lips are whispering. Capt
you-always-b to me like-like
this?'
She merely soothingly answered:
"kirtley, will see!''
She leaves his bedside gently, taking
the crumpled message with her. She
straightway dons her hat and wrappings
with determined little ierkings and stam-
pings which jostle burning tears from
her handsome, earnest eyes. And then,
while another watcher sits beside kirt-
ley Breem through the livelong droning
September day, General Manager Mary
Brice" and Acting Manager Editor Eli
jah Whitaker first know each other and
all the sacrifice that was, and that very
evening, when the invalid awakened
from another vacation in the land of
nothingness and rest and reached out his
skeleton hand while his lips quiveringly
formed the question of the morning,
there was an eXultant fiutter beside him
and he dreamed or he knew that a warm
face pressed against his own while dream
ing or knowing the first life-giving words
OF years:
"Kirtley, Elijah Whitaker says: Tell
Kirtley Breem the board has unani-
mously so passedn