The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-01-23
JOHN lNGERFIBLD- Continued.

AS yet John does not understand all
this. The idea is new and strange to
him. He feels as the child in fairy
story, on suddenly discovering that the
trees and flowers he has passed by care
lessly thousand times can think and
talk. Once he whispers to her Of the
labor and the danger, but she answers
simply: "They are my people, too,
John. 1t is my work" And he lets her
have her way.
Anne has true woman's instinct for
nursing, and her strong sense stands
her instead Of experience. A glance into
one or two of the squalid dens where
these people live tells her that if her
patients are to be saved they must be
nursed away from their own homes,
and she determines to convert the large
counting house-a long, lofty room at
the opposite end of the wharf to the re-
finery-into temporary hospital.
Selecting some seven or eight Of the
most reliable women to assist her, she
proceeds to prepare it for it's purpose.
Ledgers might be volumes of poetry,
bills Ct lading mere street ballads for all
the respect that is shown to them. The
older clerks stand staring aghast, feeling
that tho end Of all things is surely at
hand, and that the universe is rushing
down into space, until, their idleness
being detected, they are themselves
promptly impressed for the sacrilegious
work and made to assist in the demoli-
ton of their own temple.
Anne's commands are spoken very
sweetly and are accompanied by the
sweetest Of smiles, but they are never
theless commands, and somehow it does
not occur to any one to disobey them.
John-stern, masterful, authoritative
John, who has never been approached
with anything more dictatorial than a
timid request since he left Merchant
Tailor's school 10 years ago, who would
have thought that something had sud-
denly gone wrong with the laws of ma
ture if he had been-fnds himself hurry
ing along the street ON his way to q
druggists shop, slackens his pace,an in
slant to ask himself why and wherefore
told to do SO and to make haste back,
marvels who could have dared to tell
him to do anything and to make haste
back, remembers that it was Anne, is
not quite sure what to think about it,
but hurries on.
He "makes haste back" is praised
for having been so quick and feels
pleased with himself, is sent off again
in another direction with instructions
what to say when he gets there. He
starts off Che is becoming used to being
ordered about now. Half way there,
great alarm seizes him, for ON attempt
ing to say over the message to himself
to be sure that he has it quite right, he
discovers he has forgotten it. He pauses,
nervous and excited, cogitates as to
whether it will be safe for him to con-
coct q message of his own, weighs anx-
iously the chances-supposing that he
does so-of being found out. Suddenly,
to his intense surprise and relief, every
word of what he was told to say comes
back to him, and he hastens on, repeat
ing it over and over to himself as he
walks, lest it should escape him again.
And then few hundred yards farther
on there occurs one of the most extraor-
binary events that have ever happened
gerfield laughs
John Ingertield Of Lavender wharf,
after walking thirds Of Creek lane,
muttering to himself, with his eyes ON
the ground, stops in the middle of the
road and laughs, and one small boy,
who tells the story to his dying day, sees
him and hears him and runs home at
the top Of his speed with the wonderful
news and is conscientiously slapped by
his mother for telling lies.
All that day Anne works like a hero
inc, John helping her and occasionally
getting in the way. By night she has
her little hospital prepared and three
beds already up and occupied, and, all
now done that can be done, she and
John go up stairs to his old rooms above
the counting house.
John ushers her into them with some
misgiving, for by contrast with the
house at Bloomsbury they are poor and
shabby. He places her in the armchair,
near the fire, begging her to rest quiet,
and then assists his old housekeeper,
whose wits, never of the strongest, have
been scared by the days proceeding, tc
lay the meal.
Anne's eyes follow him as he moves
about the room. Perhaps here, where
all the real part of his life has been
passed, he is more his true self thai
amid the unfamiliar surroundings OF
fashion perhaps this simpler frame
shows him to greater advantage-bu,
Anne wonders how it is sho has never
noticed before that he is well set,
handsome man. Nor, indeed, is he sc
very old looking. Is it a trick Of the dim
light, or what? He looks almost young.
But why should he not look young, see
ing he is only SO, and at SO man is il
his prime. Anne wonders why she has
always thought of him as an elderly per
son.
A portrait of one of Johns ancestors
hangs over the great mantelpiece-oi
| that sturdy Captain lnperfield who