Birmingham age-herald., 1894-12-02

A.t
 and the burns on his forehead were be- ginning to heal. The eyes, however. had proved to be most injured, and these were tightly bandaged, so that he saw neither the southern sunshine which flooded the inner court yard with its pTasfing fountain, its5camel- lias in flower, and its canopy of trans parent blue, nor the tired little figure of Betty Marlowe, who sat on a stool reading aloud He could not see how thin and changed her face had grown since the night of the assault, as if the corroding liquid which he had saved her from had burnt itself into the girls soul.
 For Betty was torn with many doubts. Of course the story had got out, and all Gibraltar and all Tangiers had had nine days gossip about Mrs. Leadam and her vengeance on Dick Eardley. How she had persuaded Maj. Meadows-Dempsey to take her to the ball disguised, as joke, in masculine attire; how mortified her escort had been when he found the tragic course that events had taken; how he had con fided the whole affair to Lady Marlowe the day after the ball; all this was now well-ltnown to both colonies on either side of the Pillars of Hercules. As for Mrs. Leadam herself, not trace of her was to be seen when Be tty had got back to the grounds again with doc tor She had disappeared the night of the masquerade, was believed to have embarked on an outward bound P. and O. steamer which touched at Gibraltar the next day. So Betty was left with her lost illusions and fixed determin- ation (when he got welD to have noth- ing more to do with the scapegrace on the divan. How fond he must have been, she thought, looking up from her book with sigh, of this woman who ! had taken such horrible vengeance on a possible rival. How he must have loved-for all she knew still loved Rose Leadaml
 In the meantime, the "poor boy as Lady Marlowe called him, must be nursed, tended, made much of. He was feverish, and he had to have cooling drinks made for him; he could not see so he had to be read to; he was burnt and disfgured, and the lint and band ages had to be redressed So it came about that Betty did all these things in her quiet, noiseless way, steeling her heart against him all the while. As for Dick, since the night of the ball strange melancholy had taken posses sion of him. He had not dared to say anything more of his love, He told himself, twenty times a day, that it was all over. Betty would never marry man with scandalous story, and how, indeed, was he to explain to this young girl what manner of woman it was who had come between them with such.terrible effect? No, he must live out the rest of his miserable life alone. And besides, what was he, poor devil with scared face, and blindness threatening him, to offer him. self, even did she wish it, as husband to this beautiful girl?
 So Dick lay on the divan, morose and silent, while Betty continued to- read aloud, until Lady Marlowe ap- peared, hcaving a deep sigh of relief, and plumping herself into low arm chair, while she peered at her guest through her long tortoise shell lorg- nctte.
 My dear Dick" she said with much complacency, Eve neglected you shamelessly = perfectly shamelessly. But then you've no idea how I've been worried with all these people in the house. I really thought they would never go. There was that cuneifornl young woman (you remember her, poor thing, aud how shochingly thin she looked as Ophelia?) well, she has fn, ont hn foyr Ia An that good-loolling Prince Wronsky- I've every reason to suspect that the man Is an anarchist, and if he is not, he hns got something terrible the mat ter with his complexion, and can't benr to have people in the house like that. Then Rev. MT Bawlam and his wife --how could have ever asked them, Bet ty?i am perfectly convinced they intend to stay for the winter. He has written to London to have all his church news papers sent out, Picture the Guardian and the Church Times in my Moorish drawing-rooml It's positively heart breaking to me. who pride myself on keeping tho local color But my poor Dick. came in to tell you that Dr. Whetstone is here, and has brought the German OcullSl rom the lOtel lIH- perial. Betty, my child, we must leave him."
 The doctors visit lasted some half hour, an interminable lfalf-hour, durs ing which the girl paced an adjoining room. At last she could hear cheerful departing voices down the passage, and knew that her mother had joined the two doctors and was walking with them down the grounds to where their horses were being held by Nubian groons. She crept back to the bou- doir, and raised the thick embroidered portiere.
 Dick was sitting in forlorn attitude on the divan where she had left him, with one hand covering his face and the other hanging dejectedly by his side.
 Presently siSea x.oan escaped from his lips
 You're in pain" cried Betty, spring =