The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1895-06-15
HER SECRET.

flushed i'll al awful qriet 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 usurred 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 We're others, too, not old nor gray
before their time, who might have slip
ped away into the unknown almost un-
noticed, while this woman had SO many
ties to bind her to earth-her husband.
her child, her relations, her legion Of
friends.
It was hard she should be called away
20 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 O well the
signs of these fateful envoys, 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 CLEAN Of hope, for she lay i'll
a 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 vet
a child. In vain her husband stood by
her side and took her hand and called
her by every endearment she knew so
well. In vain her child clutched her
breast and cried for her mother to look
at her and talk to her again.
Surely if it We're possible to bring her
back from the edge of the grave these
dear ones could do it. But there she Law,
stonily impassive, with her great eyes
staring into space, cold and unheeding
as the sphinx. She gave no sign of life.
and the hours fraught with hope sped
slowly on, and each II registered a step
nearer the grave.
One by one they withdrew from the
chamber of death, the husband being
h last to obey the doctors orders. and
now none was left III the room but the
physician and the nurse-her old serv-
ant, the n 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 a 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 eve
fixed upon her, ready to note any change,
but there she lay impassive, and the
watcher could scarcely see that she
breathed.
Her beauty seemed ever 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
hit setting for the marvellous whiteness of
her face. The great violet eyes-her
chief glory-were 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 a 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 10 sound in
the room say 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 ST.
lence again.
The nurse rose hurriedlv 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 herr"
"What did she say, sir?"
Zone word only-'Linley.
The nurse suppressed an involuntary