Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1895-07-18
HER SECRET.


flushed in an awful quiet was the big
house, for its mistress lay sick unto
death. No longer was it the abode Of
laughter, for tears had taken its place,
and real sorrow had usurped seeming
Joy. Carriages still drove up, but it was
over the straw covered road they came,
and their occupants only tarried for in
quiry.
The mistress Of the house lay sick un-
to death, she who was so beautiful and
SO glad Strange that she should be sum
moned when there were others, sorrow
marked and stricken in years, who wait
ed for the call and prayed it might come
quickly, yet waited and prayed in vain.
There were others, too, not old nor gray
before their time, who might have slip
ped away into the unknown almost IN
noticed, while this woman had SO many
ties to bind her to earth-her husband,
her child, her relations, her legion Of
friends.
1t was hard she should be called ava,
SO early from the rich banquet that lay
spread before her.
Yet the angel Of death was expected
His emissaries had arrived and told Of
his approach, which may not be staid-
nay, nor even long delayed.
The doctor, who knew too well the
signs of these fateful ENJOYS, shook his
head gravely in reply to the anxious
queries of those who loved her best-her
sisters, her mother, her husband-but
he gave no gleam of hope, for she lay in
deadly lethargy from which it had
been impossible to rouse her. In vain
her mother spoke to her as she had done
in days long gone by, when she was yet
a child. In vain her husband stood by
her side and took her hand and called
her by every endearment she knew 50
we'll In vain her child clutched her
breast and cried for her mother to look
at her and talk to her again.
Surely if it were possible to bring he
back from the edge of the grave these
dear ones could do it. But there she lay,
stonily impassive, with her great eyes
as the sphinx. She gave no sign of life,
and the hours fraught with hope sped
slowly on, and each one registered a step
nearer the grave.
One by one they witi--rew from the
chamber of death, the husband being
the last to obey the Doctors orders, and
now none was left in the room but the
physician and the nurse-her old serv-
ant, the one upon whose knee she had
climbed 20 years and more ago.
How slowly the hours passed for the
watchers, and yet surely they passed too
quickly-just so many hundred more
vibrations of the pendulum, just few
strikings Of the hour, and all would be
over for her so richly endowed with all
that should make life worth living.
The doctor never left her side. He
sat there with his keen, observant eye
fixed upon her, ready to note any change,
but there sne lay impassive, and the
watcher could scarcely see that she
breathed.
Her beauty seemed even more perfect
now than he had thought it.
Absolutely faultless was the chiseling
of those clear cut features. Her dark
hair waved loosely around her Grecian
brow and trailed across her shoulders, a
fit setting for the marvellous whiteness Of
her face. The great violet eyes-her
chief glory--wGe wide open, staring
with terrible fixity into nothingness, or
was it into the something beyond? Her
lips had lost their vivid color, but this
was scarcely fault; her hands were
outside the coverlet, white marble faint
ly marked with blue, her wedding ring
the one discordant note.
For long there had been no sound III
the room save the cracking Of the fire
and the faint ticking of the clock
Suddenly the doctor bent eagerly for
ward. Her lips moved. With eagerness
he listened. ''Linley," she scarcely
more than whispered. Then all was 81
lence again.
The nurse rose hurriedly from her
chair by the fire She had only heard a
sound
The doctor raised his hand, and she re-
sumed her seat. Long, long he waited.
hoping for another sound of returning
consciousness, but none came.
At last he came over to the nurse.
''Did you hear her?"
"What did she say, sir?'
Zone word only-'Linley.'
The nurse suppressed an involuntary
exclamation.
"What did it mean, nurse?"
But the woman only shook her head
Strange" muttered the doctor, as
with knitted eyebrows he reflected and
strove to catch some clew Then he re-
turned to the bedside. There she lay as
impassiye as before.
"Linleyl Linleyp' he kept repeating.
"What did she mean?"
The nurse made no reply, but sat
looking into the fire
Nurse, tell me, he said at length,
''have you an idea what the mistress
meant by that word?"
But the nurse did not or would not
hear.
Look here. nurse, continued he. ~