The record-union., 1896-03-21

| them again.
| Now you couldn't much wonder, could
you, that the Colonel should be struck
| of heap when he read that! And you
needn't tell me he wanted to marry Miss
| Lucia to anybody either. When it
came in her way, and Miss Lucia set her
| heart on it, he probably thought he
| could see advantages in it, as securing
| her happiness after he was gone. But
he was too wrapped up in her to be
anxious to part with her to any man.
and it must have been some of trial
| to him to see her so fond of Mr.. Leslie
| And then, after all the thought and
| trouble it had cost him, and all the care
and pains he had taken to keep his
faithful promise to the dead, and after
ward because of the tender love he had
for Miss Lucia herself, to see every
thing in a moment destroyed and set
at naught. Oh, it was hard!
| All these things, DR.. Popham said,
went through his head as he sat reading
Mr.. Leslies letter, and then, like a
flash, he thought of poor Miss Lucia,
and could most have killed himself
| because he had been the means of her
seeing it. And then he got all of a
| tremble for fear of wnat she might
have been minded to do when she went
out of the room in that strange way
He didn't dare to leave the Colonel
| alone, but he felt he must do something
so he went to the door of the chamber
and called one of the servants that were
standing in the hall outside. The girl
said Miss Lucia had gone into her room
and hadn't spoken anything except that
she said mo" when they asked if they
should clear away the breakfast table
So he told the woman to go and sit by
her mistress door, to be on hand in
| case there was need of her and then
he went back to the sickroom again.
| On in the afternoon the Colonel was
enough better for the doctor to feel
| Ike leaving him in care of his black
man, Croesus, long enough to go home
and see about a few things and speak
| to Mrs Popham. Before he left he
went in and looked at Miss Lucia, who
had not come out of her room at all.
as the girl at the door told him. She
was just sitting with her hands folded
in her lap, gazing out of the window,
and when the doctor told her that her
father was better, she smiled kind of
softly and said, "Yes-yes''; but the doc
tor said she didn't believe she rightly
4
he came back in the evening, for he was
going to spend the night with the Colo
mel, Miss Lucia was still sitting at her
window in the same position and
dreamy like, just as she had been be-
| fore.
To cut long story short, the Colonel
soon got back his bodily health, though
he never looked himself again, but Miss
| Lucia didn't seem to be able to pick
up. She would sit by her window, look
ing out at nothing, day in and day out,
and all day long. She never spoke, ex-
| cept to answer questions, and even
then you could see she just did it to
| be pleasant, and didn't really know
what it was had been said to her. The
Colonel did everything he could think
of to wake her up and hung around her
So that it was pitiful to see him, DR..
| Popham told us. But it was all no use.
| She would most generally smile at her
| father when he spoke to her, and some
| times answer him so that it really
seemed as if she was kind of cropping
after the way back to herself but then
she would drift off again into the mist
| and it was just as bad as before. And
all the time she was growing thinner
and Trailer looking, and all her pretty
color gone, so that her great eyes
| locked uncanny, shining out of such
white, wasted face.
| 1t went on like that for more than a
year, Miss Lucia getting slowly worse.
| The doctor was engaged to visit her
every day, but there was nothing he
could do, and he came more to ease the
| Colonel than anything else. The Colo
| mel, poor man, hung around her like
| shadow, and was never so near happy
as when he thought he'd discovered
something she wanted done, but every
| thing was the same to her-she didn't
| know whether she was in silk or rags,
whether it was hot or cold, or whether
she ate or tasted.
| The last wish she had been known to
! express about anything was that when
| she told the servants not to clear away
| her wedding breakfast. OF course,
after that, they wouldn't do anything
to it without further orders, but Miss
Lucia never gave any more, and as
soon as the Colonel got well enough to
| hear about it, he said it was to be just
| as Miss Lucia wished So he turned
| the key in the dining-room door, and
had all his meals served him in the lit
| tie south room after that, always hop
| ing, poor man. that Miss Lucia would
come back to herself some day, and not
| wanting her to find anything different
| from the way she would like to have it.
| And, strange enough, one day in the
| spring-it was a pretty morning, I re-
member, with the lilacs all out and a
pleasant, warm air-about eighteen
months, it was, after the time she was
struck-as DE- Popham was making
his regular cali and sitting with her.
| the Colonel beside him, Miss Lucia,
who had grown very weak by that
time, turned to her father and said,
quite sensible-like, Now I will put on
my wedding dress
| The poor Colonel thought the gates
| of heaven were opening, almost, he was
so rejoiced to hear her speak of her own
will, and though what she said was sad
enough to hear, land knows, still it
might be her mind was on its way
| back again, and was beginning by
picking up the threads where they were
dropped. Anyway, that was the Colo
nel's idea about it.
| So he sent for Miss Lucia's maid. and
| the dress was got out and put on her.
| Just as it had been on the wedding
morning, and then she walked out to
her father, all in her silks and laces,
and said: Father, mightn't we go
down to look at the table before the
people Gomez"
TIL Colonel gave DR.. Popham one joy
| full look, as much as to say: There,
| you see I'm right" and then he offered
her his arm in that grand way he had,
ao1 ont tbov uollxad into tbe bolI o,J