Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-04-27
THE UNREAD LETTER

THE UNREAD LETTER
The electric light from q burner shaded
with crinkled silk streamed through the
wide open windows into the dark blueness
of the snltry autumn dusk. Pale fowered
damask was stretched tentlike over the
walls and ceilings of the room, from which
all other drapery had been stripped and
most of the furniture removed. Straw
laid down OH the street below mut1led tho
immediate chatter of traffic. The atmos.
phere was acrid with tho smell of some
powerful slisinfectant.
On nHrrow bed of carved cedar wood
pulled well into the middle of the room lay
woman, and beside her, both her pale
hands in his, and his head bowed upon
them, kaelt a man.
"How long will the nurse leave MS alone
together wonder? I want you''- Her
faint voice trailed off into silence.
"What, sweetheart?'
He looked up, his handsome, ordinarily
debonair face almost grotesquely con-
vulsed
But when she spoke again it was In a
tone of one who makes an entirely imper-
sonal observation.
GLOW strange!" she said weakly. "In
few days, perhaps in Il few hours, shall
DO lonely, useless thing, only a dead
body, which was once your wife"
"My poor little girl" he muttered, fill
ed with an immense an intolerable pity.
''My poor, dear, little girl.
"You are sorry for me as we'll as for
yourself, aren't you." she said wistfully.
He made no attempt at answer beyond
that implied in his actions as he gathered
her into his arms.
"Are these your tears feel-so hot and
bitterl Mine seem all dried up, but it is
hard to have to go away from tho people
and places know, out of the warmth and
light--where? Ah-h, loyo isn't as strong
rs death, OF you would hold me fast al
Ways, wouldn't your"
He began rocking her to and fro gently,
mechanically as one rocks a sleeping child
With nh effort she clasped hcr frail arms
round his neck, and all the bright rain of
her hair fell over and hid her face.
"You are tired" he said.
"Never mind, T shall have all eternity
to rest in. Sho laughed rather mirth-
lessly. "The nurse will DO here soon, and
at first want you''-
"What, sweethcart?' he asked
She looked almost humbly at him, with
dimmed eyes sunken deep in her white,
sharpened face.
''Will you do mo favors' Her voice
failed hor for moment.
Anything = everything" he said
"You'n tell me later on
''Dear boy. there won 1T be any later on
for me. want you to go to my esoretoiro
and take out small sealed packet from
the left hand top drawer. There is let
ter inside When am dead, you will see
that it Is delivered into tho hands Of tho
person to whom it is addressed"
SIS that ALP
"That is all. I ask this favor of you
because prefer to trust you rather than
my maid OF a solicitor. The Question is,
will you trust me?"
And she watched him with strained at
tention.
"Trust you?" he echoed.
eyes; open the packet and read the adj
dress on the letter."
She rolled over and hid her face in the
bedclothes. There was short silence,
and the writing ON the envelope was not
palmer than the CONSERVATION ON his face.
Perhaps you have right to know
what I have written to him." she said, at
length, in stifled voice. Certainly you
have right to know why have written
to him. But can't explain and won't
excuse myself. As said before, tho ques-
ton is, Will you trust me?"
She turned toward him at that, and her
voice was in the voice, and her eyes were
the eyes Of a dying woman. So 1t camo tc
pass that he went back to the bed and
awkwardly, but with much tender inten.
ton smoothed the bright rain Of her haiI
on the pillows.
"Will Ip' he said huskily. eyes; !
think of those three years and Of your
part In them, and am quite satisfied tc
know nothing"
For tho first time during the interview
tears wclled up into her eyes and over
flowed.
"How good you are, how very good!"
she murmured as no gathered her again
into his arms.
my poor little girl My poor, dear lit
Ito girlP' he muttered.
With supreme effort she clasped her
frail arms around his neck.
"S.s-s.shl She is asleep" he warned
the nurse, who quietly entered the room a
few minutes later.
The light of a huge fire FLASHED with the
autumn dusk, wan with regrets and men,
cries, which had invaded the room.
The carved cedar wood bed was pushed
away into o cornes, and tho woman had
been moved to a capacious ohintz covered
sofa pulled close up to the hearth.
She was terribly thin and white. The
weight Of her mouse oolored chignon seem
cd to drag back her delicate head. She
looked almost lost among the laces and
furs of her loose gown, but she was ITO
longer dying or in any danger Of doing
SO. For this once death had turned away
his head and passed her by. ede
And the man stood OH the opposite side
Of the hearth Watching her with all his
honest heart In Ms eyes.
"Oh-h" she yawned. "I'm SO tired, 30
fearfully tired, Of doing nothing. How
tiresolne that doctor is to keep me here. /
feel just like a galley slave chained to his
oar.
"He said you might perhaps DO carried
down stairs at the end Of the week, didn't
heP'
Sat the end OF tho week And only per-
hapsl He's a regular old woman. First
he literally frightened me nearly to death,
for dcst't helieye Syas ever i'll "a he said ~