The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-03-12
ONE WHO WAS LoYAL.
GLOW is he to-day; nurse! "

uoW. IerldpS L was mistdheu eFeu
then"
She spoke with the calm, matter-of-
fact preciseness of her calling, and
watched in respectful silence while
the doctor made his wonted ekamina-
ton. Standing at the foot of the bed,
in her plain gray dress and profession
al cap and apron, she looked d strong,
reliant figure, capable of the patient
fulfillment of burdensome duties, hnH
Of swift, masterful action in moments
emergency. Her face was pale. and
,.pcared paler still for the deep rings
Under her eyes,. that told Oh a nights
vigil; anti, though trained for years to
impassive contemplation of suffering
and sorrow, its features we're all too
finely moulded and sympathetic to
wholly conceal a nature instinctively
gentle and tender. The doctor put his
| watch back into his pocket and slowly
buttoned his coat az he looked at the
unconscious figure in the bed.
"Tbe change may come at any mo-
ment,' he said, land when it does
there will be nothing more for Us to
do. He cannot possibly live through
the day; he may die in the next five
minutes. l will stay here a little
while; I am not busy this morning.
He scanned her keenly and noted the
WEAKNESS her eyes could not conceal.
You had better rest in the arm chair.
You look a bit tagged. Did you get
any sleep last nighty''
"No," she answered simply, moving
to the chair he wheeled forward for
her. She failed to add that she had
taken no rest, and scarce any food
acc Wednesday afternoon, though !,
was then Friday. He would have
scolded her for her want of care of
herself, and her secret was inestima-
bly, dear to her.
The doctor drew the blinds to shut
out the morning sunlight-there was
little need for light now. Moving
noiselessly about the room, he amused
himself examining the books and curl
odds and ends that Uttered the room,
glancing from time to time toward the
the bed where his dying patient
breathed slowly and heavily. He even
wondered about the identity of the
man whose existence had only come
to his ken when he was called by the
laundress a couple of days back. It
was then too late to discover intch,
for the patient had lair all night in
sensible by the heavy brass fender,
with a fractured skull; and precious
hours-wherein it might have been
possible to raise the depressed bone,
remove the clots and so relieve the
pressure on the brain-had passed
without a suspicion, The shadow Of
death was creeping across the large
room in the Temple. The charwoman
found him lii the morning, and
screamed for the assistance and ON.
fort of her daughter Hannah. To
l Hnfhh1s fhnv hnror IA trant thn 400,
gentleman for what they comprehen.
sively termed ''fits,' but the girl, dis
covering the small wound at the back
of the head, the doctor was speedily
brought, and they volubly furnished
him with the leading facts.
He was a very lonely gent, wonder
fully lonely, and during the ten years
she had known him, she had never
seen him with a friend. No visitors
came to his room, and even letter!
We're rare. He led q quiet, orderly
life, with money always ready TO
reasonable comforts, and was eve
kind and pleasant-spoken to hersel
and her daughter. When she found
him lying there SO still and awful i
gave her quite a turn, and she wa
too much Hurried to think what shoul,
have happened. Perhaps the docto
was right in thinking he must hav,
fallen from the narrow ladder leaning
against the book shelves, and struc]
his head on the fender. Such n thinl
had never happened before in all tn
time she had been in the inn, and sh
could remember
DR.. Pitcher quietly checked the rem
%iniscent flow, and fastened to place
nurse In charge. He was satisfied tina
Il ~t 80 H. @@,k l.. ~ l1
been-could have but one ending
There are few threads in the tangle
skein of London life hat run thei
length smoothly enough to enable an
stranger to pick up any part and trac
it's history; and DR.. Pitcher was to
accustomed to the knots, the sudde
~entanglements, the confusing infll
ence of intruding threads to expect t
carry far his Investigations into til
antecedents of an unknown patien
The man was of the intellectual typ
the good forehead, and the long, we
shaped nose, could belong to no stun
ed mind. His books. if somewhat il
congruous, revealed literary appreci:
ton: the water colorS on the wal
ard the china about the room argue
taste; a crucifiX at the bed dead SUI,
gested a religious temperament, whic
the doctor. judging from the gener;
surroundings, surmised to be impre
sional rather than devotional. On tt
writing table he found a letter from
firm of solicitors, acknowledging IL
receipt of instructions and promisir
"best attention. this he put into h
pocket.
Standing by itself in an old Oxfol
frame was a little. half-faded pilot
| graph of a girl in the evening dress
the seventies. The enormous skin
with two or three huge bows down II
center. the puffy sleeves fastened
Intervals with bands of ribbon ar
closing tightly around the wrists: Il
full, square-cut bodice. and loose pi
of hair controlled by a single strip
, velvet, were all strange to eyes accu
!" toned to later modes, but no enOrn
tics of dress could dim the vivid, we
nigh wicked beauty of girls fac
A black velvet band with a little go
cross hung low on her bosom, al
= heavy ornaments pierced her dain
ears; but had her face been Smear'
: with the fantastic adoInments of
r P~olypesian beauty. had her teeth be,
blackened and her lips run throu.
with bones, she would still have be
, triumphant in loneliness. and the tt
:. Ing fashion of twenty-five years ba'
; was important against her charms ev'
} when judged by modern standard
. Her small. pert face, with it's dain
, cheeks and daring eyes, was as re
. i'm his faded photograph rs the fral