The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-03-28

noisy play He can feel the dear wife's
breath and the slow stroke upon his fore
head which carried him into dreamland.
But what then? Nothing.
Is this dreamland? No. il is too fright
fully real He can hear-and see-and
think-and remember. How clearly he can
recall every incident CT this o%cntfui day
He had not been well for some time. His
wife had been very anxious about him.
Yielding to her persuasion, he had that
morning consulted his family physician
concerning himself He can remember
every word of the good mans advice.
'Too much worry too much application
to business; nervous breakdown threaten
ed: must quit work and get away"
And he had answered: How could he,
the president and principal stakeholder of
a bank, and a director and official in a
host of business enterprises which de-
manded his personal supervision? He
was rich, yet there were liabilities which
he alone knew how to turn from disaster
into great profits. He could not stop, he
must work awhile longer-just a little
while, and then he would take his wife
and children abroad and have a happy
year and regain his former health and
ld-tme vigor
But the doctor had shaken his head and
said: "Mr. Steadman. you are in a serious
condition, more serious than / would care
to mention did 1 not know that, unless
you are reasonably alarmed, you will not
follow my directions"
And he had promised to think II over
and had gone home to luncheon and his
hours rest in the peace and quiet of that
dear abode.
But here comes the doctor and he will
soon be with Mary and the children again
and know all, for she will tell him why he
was carried, in his sleep, to this dreadful
place. 1t was no lack of love which sent
him there-he knows that we'll If il was
done with her consent.
The cab stops i'm a part of the city where
Steadman has never been before, in front
of plain, unpretending house. The cab
man opens the door and the doctor alights
"Oh! doctor I beg of you do not spend
time to make call. Get me home! Get
me homer
Come, Mr.. steadman, you will find her
here"
Find my wife here? Impossible This
is not my house. Driver, take me to 1741
Park place. If you must stop, doctor, l
Will go on. You can follow at your leis-
ure. DO you hear me, driver? Move on
and don't spare your horses"
but, Mr.. Steadman tell you your wife
is in this house. l will explain later"
Steadman springs from the carriage and
hurries up the steps to the house. The
doctor can hardly keep pace with him.
He rings the bell and to the maid says:
band wishes to see her.
There are running footsteps in the up
per hall-a familiar form gldes down
the stairway a moments hesitation,
glad cry, and he is clasped in his dear
wife's loving arms. She leads him into
the little sitting room, makes him sit
down and then she caresses and comforts
him as does mother the child who was
lost and is found again.
His eyes overflow with tears at this
great tenderness-but what is this? The
light maybe, perhaps the tears. 1t can
not be; but yes. the bright, brown hair
! is thickly streaked with gray
"Oh, Nary he cries. tell me. darling,
why are you here? Why are we not at
| home with the children? And tell me,
dearest, how came those gray hairs in
your young head today? And now. that 1
look at you, you are not the same. Has
my sickness hurt you so, my poor grip"
And then he bursts into sobs, but re-
strains his grief, after a time. he
thinks that at least he is well now and
come back to help and comfort her when
| II might have been so different
Come, dearest. cab is at the door.
You can excuse yourself here and we will
go home together. l will spend the after
noon with you and the children and we
will all be off across the water for as
long vacation as you can enjoy"
Then the poor little woman and the kind
the whole, sad truth. 1t is 10 years since
he fell asleep in the old home at Park
place. When he awoke he was another
man. They touch lightly on the need of
restraint in the hospital" With the loss
of his supervision, and perhaps through
fraud and trickery, his great fortune has
melted away, and his delicately nurtured
wife has been obliged to give up her home
and seek employment for the support of
the family He is scarcely given to under
stand that this included the support OF
himself at the private "nospital" yet
he feels 1t, oh, how keenly.
She has established and successfully
maintained a school for children and this
Is in the school building and the children
are now In the schoolroom upstairs await
ing the return of their teacher.
Then comes the cruelest blow of all
for it must come. The man is mad in his
demand for little Ned and Edith. now
grown large and handsome he is sure
He Is made to know-it is broken to him
gently-that Teddie and Edith have beer
dead for many years.
He bows his head I'm grief too deep tC
ind eXpression-a dry-eyed, burning, aw
full grief
| He is penniless. The best years OF hi.
life have passed in a madhouse; he has
come forth a broken. shattered man whC
: can only be a burden to his little, frail
careWorn woman: ne can scarcely hon,
to lessen her toll. to witness which will b,
J intolerable. For 10 long years his own deal
, Mary-bitter to contemplatel-has laboret
) In desolation Of spirit to support in tn,
: asylum her insane husband who could no
repay her womanly devotion with on,
] word Of love, with one look Of gratitude
{ who, in his insanity, was blind to her pa
tent face, deaf to her appealing voice
And with it all, Edith and Teddie ar,
gone. He can never touch them. see them
| hear them again.
q IL ~