The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-10-22
would tell the doctor so when he came


again.
He turned restlessly on the pillow. lis
tening to the nurses returning step. |
with an invalid's peevish fretfulness
that she stayed so long away. There |
was no sound in the house save the |
faint clatter of dishes in the distant |
kitchen, where preparations for sup |
per were evidently going on. Outside |
sounded the faint systole and diastole
of some PARKWAY engine and the reg
ular dull munshing of the stamp-mill
on its endless hard pabulum; while
every now and then, as though feeling
bound to rouse the place from its
sleepy lethargy, a tame magpie down
the street would vent its whole roper
toire of speech in a series of shril hall
ZOOS, like telephone girl gone mad.
Just so, Neil remembered, this mis-
cradle bird had been screaming when
he had looked his last upon Dorothy
Meredith, when she was coming out OF
the hotel door in her black gown, SEEM
ing like the ghost of the girl whose
wild-rose loneliness had been clasped
to his heart but the day before. They
were taking her dead to Orodelphia to
be made ready for the long journey east,
and in company with her fathers at
torney, who had come to her at once
upon learning of the awful tragedy.
the girl was just entering the carriage
that was to follow the hearse down.
the Canyon road.
She had to the last refused to see
him. even though he had poured his
heart out in letter that pleaded his
| right to comfort her, begging for but
one kind word. She had merely ar
s1ered him in a few curt lines which
had neither formal beginning nor sigma
ture: ''It may be my fault if you have
| been mistaken, but 1 do not care for
you in the way your letter would imply,
and l owe it to him never to see you
! again. 1t is the only atonement l can
make"
And she had meant it, every ruthless
word. If there had been any question
as to that in Neil's mind, he must have
been undeceived when her eyes, all red
and swollen from weeping, were mad
vertently raised to meet his glance, so
much of cold aversion her look eX-
pressed. If Ger a moment she had ever
really loved him. he felt, she could net
have turned against him so, could never
| have looked at him like that, feeling
that she was looking upon him for the
| last time. She had never cared for him.
| He had been befooled, misied by his
| own blind infatuation. But it was over
/ 4 ,irb &c Of
| lying here it seemed as though passion
had burned. itself out with the fever's
flame, leaving him YEARLY Indifferent.
| There was even a dull wonder in his
| mind that he had ever cared so much,
that she could have had the power to
hurt him so; and yet, as remembered,
there was such an ache of pity in his
heart for the old self that had been
| given over to the folly of such suffering,
such pang Cf pain recalled, that weak
tears were yelling up from his eyes, to
be shamefacedly wiped away as he
turned back toward the door. Surely
Themistocles was wise when he begged
for the boon CT forgetfulness.
The nurse was just coming with the
broth she had gone to fetch. She was
an elderly widow with a heart in the
right place, rs the saying is, but with
a tongue too voluble for NeiPs peace OF
mind. He fretted when she left him
long alone, but he groaned in spirit
when she kept him company. She was
talking now the moment she set eyes on
him, never stopping for breath while
she put into his hands the bowl she had
brought, fussily beating up the pillows
behind his back.
did you think was goin' to be gone
all night?" she cheerily cackled
"Come pretty near it, for a fact; but
Mis- Morrison m her man drove up jes
5 I was comm out from the kitchen
she wanted to git out, but Morrison says
no, sir, there was the milkin' n chores
to home waitin', n if she once got VI
here a-tall<in' land knows when he'd ever
git her started again. He's the bosSi
est man, conSiderin' that he don't know
enough to chew gum N amt no ac
count noways; but little men generally
be that way, if you've noticed. They've
been down to Orodelphy, n she stopped
to bring you-now think of it, IVAN
amin to tell you what she brought you
till I'd seen the doctor about it. Blu
that's jest like me-forever g:vin' thing
away. It's jest natchelly wonder
, kin keep my vittles down, I've jest 81
, everlastin'ly got my mouth open. Ny
husband used to say"
SIS it grapes ?" demanded Neil, eager
ly, looking over the rim of the bowl.
Land, no; nawthin' half so good, il
my opinion, though perhaps you, bein
, from the east, won't look at it tina
way. It's oysters fresh from Denver
, that's what it isl
Oysters fresh from Denver" Ant
. Neil laughed, no less for the incongru
ity of the statement than for delight il
+ the promised treat. "And when can
have some?'
''Well, you mustn't, you know, till thu
, doctor says So" the good woman urged
y deprecatlngly. Goodness knows i