The record-union., 1897-10-03

seeming to care whether his food were
good or bad, and passed her without so
much as knowing that she was there.
His bed, too, showed the perturbation
of his mind. She had 'sbut TO look at
it to see how very little sleeping had
been done in it" A change must come
soon or he would fret himself away"
so the day after Candlemas sermon she
waylaid him as he was going out. My
dear boy she said piteously-"sir,
mean-n1y heart aches when / see you;
you are taking on that badly about
| something that you neither eat nor
sheep"
Il am all right" he said, trying to
get out of the house. but the passage
was narrow and she stout, and he could
not reach the door unless she turned
| sideways and crushed herself up
against the wall which she did not
seem to intend to do.
you must let me speak, sir. You
are fairly throwing away your health,
to say nothing of your comfort, for
comforts a thing you never take into
account. You don't eat enough to keep
even sparrow going! You don't sleep
and you are walking about upon those
poor feet of yours with an empty stom-
ach from early morning till late at
night
To her delight, her words made him
smile and return to the speech of other
days. Nurse dear, I'm all right! One
or two things are rather worrying me,
that's ALL"
| "If I could be certain that he was
worried about one or two things, L
wouldn't mind so much" she thought,
''but fear it's only one"
"Will you promise to be in by half
past 7?'' she said, for she wanted to
make certain pudding that he liked.
Let me go now, and I will"
| well, bless him for a saint what
ever he does to vex me!' she thought.
| He certainly has ways that would
have worn out the patience of Job him
self, and that in the second or third
| chapter" Her pudding might have
been favored with bitterness, for while
making it her mind was occupied with
his misdeeds How often she had made
some dish to tempt his appetite, and
| before even tasting it he had run off
with the greater part to some invalid.
who would probably never eat a bite
! of it; and when he had returned, his
own portion was that sad that 1t was
not worth eating" It's cheating your
mouth, sir, to put such stuff as that
| into it, she had said, but nothing was
to be got from him but It's all right"
! The grapes and wine sent for him when
he looked i'll found their way to the
sick, too. She had even caught him
carrying his blankets and pillows down
stairs to give to some one at the door.
She tried to check these "reminiscences.
but in vain. There was that still worse
thing that had been done fifteen months
ago-it had all but cost him his life.
Proctor, the sacristan, was i'll with
typhus fever of so malignant a nature
that no nurse would stay with him.
Paid people might be afraid, but her
dear master had gone to the mans
bedside as soon as he had heard that
he was thus abandoned, and had nursed
him night and day single-handed, leav-
ing his own house to priest who came
to do his duties and his poor old nurse
! to the misery of having to provide ev-
cry comfort for stranger, while her
master had not even a bed to lie down
on or a bite that was fit TO eat. He
| had nursed that man Proctor for three
weeks as tenderly as any woman could
to arrange for having him sent to the
sea and write a check to pay for 1t,
| before he crept into bed to battle with
the fever himself. Proctor was "well
done to- while away, and came back
! strong and we'll: but her poor master
had hard fight for his life, and
fight with poverty afterwards, for all
his money had gone to bring the sacris-
| 70
| beef-tea and good port wine," she had
said when she saw her masters hollow
cheeks and transparent hands, "and the
butcher says that no more meat shall
come here until we have paid up what's
owing already"
'Tt can't be paid for another fort
night, when my salary will come,' he
had said; and being frankly informed
that he need not have given away all
that he had to Proctor, and left him
self and her with nothing but bread
and water, and water and bread for a
change, until money came in, he had
answered, '"They will be sweetened by
the thought that we have kept the
poor fellow alive to work for his wife
and family
She had not trusted herself to reply
she did not hold with vexing people who
had just risen from a sick-bed, but it
had been on the tip of her tongue to
| tell him that she could do very well
without any such sweetenihg for her
| food. There was NO controlling him
he might be fit for heaven. but he was
not fit for earth.
| While she, poor woman, was thus
occupied with "reminiscences of his last
years misdoings, he was seated in the
confessional. 1t was not yet the hour
when his presence was expected, but he
sat in the darkness, glad to be alone
and unseen while wrestling with a hor-
rible fear which day by day was talk
ing more forcible possession of him-a
fear that Proctor, the sacristan, was
stealing the money OF the church and
of the poor 1T is impossiblel It is
simply impossible!" he told himself.
Proctor conducts himself excellently
in every relation of life" And yet,
guided by one of the flashes of insight
peculiar to persons of highly sensi-
tive organization he had OWNED the
| truth, and he knew it. 'I would have
staked my life on his honesty" he con-
| tinued, with would-be conviction; but
/ again this inner sense revealed to him
that he had almost always felt some
doubt of the man. TT would be such a
Judas-like act of treachery," he pleaded
with himself; but if one Judas has
existed, why not two? Proctor could
most easily do it, for his duties bring
him to the church at all hours. Proc
tor has recently opened a shop, and it
| iS hard 70 ina pina whore ba fo11nd tho