Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-09-12

pttI tlCuldIIcC Htdt.
Although Ellen was too courageous to
make any confessions, the cruel heat of
Bengal summer was a 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 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 ERE to 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 a 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 a 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.
spite from torment, presently torment
in themselves A clinging, penetrating
damp infected everything The tank
overfowed, and the green garden be-
came dismal swamp, tenanted by
many frogs, whose barking kept Ellen
from sleeping. A broad dado of damp
showed itself OH the walls Of the little
pink house, and thin film of blue mold
spread over their most cherished treas
ures. Ellen tried stoves in 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 spike of pain seemed to be
piercing through her left temple and
was her constant attendant all day long.
81 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 I should ave been
getting at 'ome," she repeated. with
persistent cheerfulness. ''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 seedee!' said
Mrs. Gasparez.
''I ave a little fever at night some
times, said Ellen, ''but it's nothing,
and I suppose it will get cooler every
day now.'
''Ooh, yes, it will soon be albright,
and 1 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," saiG
Ellen heartily. ''Is she a nice girl?'
'My, yesl She is beauteel Eyes
that big, hair so long, and her figure.
ooh, so lovelee! 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
liveliness 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
back, and then she went away and
looked at herself in the glass with new
eyes.
'I do wish it didn't make one so
plain for so long," she said to the worn
face and ungainly figure she saw re-
fected 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, |
"Well, 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't it '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
indeed, and the conclusion |
she drew from her study of his char
acter was that they were ga 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 John S 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 ''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-
Toward the end of November Abdool
ran over to Mrs. Gasparez's house one
with an urgent message
"My," said Mrs. Gasparez as she
caught up q solah topee, "onlee seven
That was at breakfast time, and John
Port was away up the line and would
not return till the morning of the next
day.