The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1895-03-16

pcI, LILY NFSI lnClSlOu upon h corpse,
had cost NE less sick and trembling
horror. My hair would perhaps bris.
tie up on end had it not been wet with
the cold dew that started out at every
pc;a: and If my face had been turned
to'Ta!is the students who were fol-
lowing behind ME l have no doubt
th:.T would have taken me for the sub
jert Itself. AS I drew nearer to the
table ny assistant drew back the cloth,
and suddenly l caught his hand just
as the face only Of the dead person
lay bare. If l had been shaking flesh
and blood before. for a moment now
l was marble. This face-this sub
ject that had been procured-this dead
woman lying under the cloth-these
long curves and outlines more beauti-
fully nodded than sculpture IS they
stretched beneath the sheet-that clay
cold forehead with all the yellow hair
sweeping back from it and falling to
the noor-what was it all but Elise?
And l had not known she was dead!
And with that it overcame me, like a
blast Of fire fusing every other thought
in that one, that my last words with
her had perhaps excited the excess Of
fever that must have swept her away,
that it was / who had killed her In
deed-and then came the bitter sense
that she had died and been buried,
yet had not been beside her, and nov
exposed to the vulgar gaze of student
and janitors, she lay awaiting the
knife. 1t fell from my hand.
II hope there is no mistake. sir
HQi6 fhn Assistant IN n lcHu fnnn how
ing noted my agitation and the face.
Il found the body already procured
when l came In, and presumed you had
given the janltor your orders, as usual
But 1 could not open my heart before
this gaping throng. Mechanically 1 re-
placed the face-cloth, with a gesture
that made my assistant understand
that 1t was not to be disturbed, and l
sank into a seat, my head In my hands.
None Of them had ever seen that face
none but the assistant and 1; and
whether they thought l was ill, or
thoughts the students awaited me
menced chatting among themselves;
and it must have been nearly an hour
that I sat there, without one thought
AA IL AAAb0, Will AOClluS OuI d CClStl-
ton of blank misery that seemed to
1stence. My brain was fairly drowned
In unshed tears. 1t was the corpse it.
self that awoke me. A hand that had
been composed by it's side, vibrating
as the heavy tread Of a student crossed
the room, fell away loosely from its
position, with n dead, awful swing,
0nfy hr7nr fhn,,1 G% go INlcin Rh0% III
me- murmured a voice within, that
hardly seemed my W consciousness.
She gives herself to her race; she
wills that the secret Of the disease that
destroyed her shall be discovered, that
no other girl snail die away from love
and lover and heaven or earth by
means Of it, And with the thought
all my medical fervor surged back
upon me, my divine curiosity, my de-
sire for knowledge, for the al to
work miracles of healing, to bring hap
piness into homes and life back to the
dying. l rose instantly and uncovered
that portion only Of the subject on
which my work was to be done, and,
without speaking a syllable to the stu
dents clustered around me, l was at
work.
They might watch me If they would,
I forgot them, I was on fire and tremb.
ling everywhere but in my hands,
which could no more have shaken than
q fat of fate could a " from it's end.
The soft surfaces. the delicate tissues,
the placid muscles, one by one, were
laid aside, and my knife went piercing
| deeper and deeper, first into the mys-
teries that had entangled themselves
upon the wholesome scheme of crea-
ton. It was a terrible while; the flesh
I cut. I fancied that it quivered; the
ganglions of nerves, l seemed to see
the electric fluid Of life and of wolf.
ton running along them with intelli-
gent suffering. What minutes, what
hours. passed , I knew not; the stu
dents dropped away, one after the
other-the work was beyond their
depth-and I did not miss them. Sud.
denly I flung up my hands, crying
aloud; I have found it. The secret
was mastered and mine. Elise had
taught it to me. II she were alive
alb, bitter mockery-I could have heal.
ed her with the knowledge she had
given me! Then I replaced everything,
drew the sheet over what no longer
seemed to bear any relation to Elise,
| went and cleaned my hands and took
off my dissecting dress, glanced at my
assistant lying back IL a dream, where
he had sank against the wall, and !
heard the clock strike three. l had
| been six hours at work. The door
opened; two young men ~entered-en'
gagged for the service, al l thought
advanced to the dissecting table, Shout
| dered the subject, and moved away
toward the door. I turned my head
| away, for, after all, the touch Of other
hands than mine on those remains
seemed a profanity that I could not
endure to see. 'Rebury her where you
found her. I said hoarsely, and, with
out looking up, yet stratled at the
sound of my own voice.
8 "But something, l never knew what,
I do not know to-day, made me lift my
head. I had not heard the fatal click,
nor the door close. nor a football upon
the floor. Yet they were gone and
was alone in the room with my heavily
Numbering assistant. But l had stood
almost facing the door toward which
they went; they would have been
| obliged, too, in order to open it, to
move a heavy table that still remain
ed there unmoved. Was: l the victim
of an optical. delusion? Was / losing
my mind?. I ran to the door, it had a
chain-bolt, and that was shot together,
I threw it open; there was not a sound
on all the long stairway, only a cold,
cold wind came blowing by me.
smiled at myself then a little after.
ward. as bweildered as one in a delir'
ium, forgetting. for the moment that
people who leave a room cannot bolt
it on the inside, and 1 said that my
| nerves had bren under more tension
than they, could bear. And then l sat
] down to think-to think over my dis