Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-07-14
CHAPTER XXXyr.

Two minutes later, as Hester and Mrs
Llewellyn stand whispering together at
The head of the staircase, Eric suddenly
appears and calls to them.
Mother! Hettie! Come herer'
They find him on his knees beside Mu,
del, lying white, and silent, and helpless
as a broken lily, with her bonnet-the
Widows bonnet which Eric has snatched
bH-hung trailing over a chair, and the
uncovered head, with its beautiful cluster
hg curls and its ivory-white rounded
throat, fallen Imply across his arm.
''She has tainted, Eric, my dear! La,
heE~fiat on her back" Mrs. Llewellyn
says, fussily, unfastening Muriel's dress,
y and refraining, with the prudery of some
elderly matrons, from unclasping the cor
set that imprisons the girls feebly beat
hg heart
Tainted? This isn't faint!' Eric an
swers, through his close-shut teeth. ''She
ls dying! Send for the doctor, will you, at
once? This is no faint. Look at the cold
sweat on her forehead-look at her, thin
and wasted-look at her little hands with
my poor little lovel Oh, Muriel, my poor
little wife! Has she been like this be-
fore2" he asks his mother, hurriedly, as
they try In vain to restore her to con-
sciousness. 'She looks dreadfully III and
fragile! And this awful Grape dress on
ner with these Grape bands! Pull them
Of her, mother, it drives me mad to see
herl Pull this dress off! Tear II off in
pieces! oh, my poor little Muriel, is this
what l have brought you to? The bright
est and loveliest girl l ever saw, one little
year agor'
1T is more than year and a quarter
since you were married, my dear" Mrs.
Lewellyn says primly. land she-she has
fretted very much after you-I think"
"You think. mother? Don't you know.
then, whether she has been happy or mis-
erabler he asks, gravely.
"Muriel has never been confidential with
me, Eric" the dowager says in a COM
planning tone. ''She never has been low
, Ing, or confidential with me, though
have always tried to do my duty toward
her, and be most careful of her welfare" ="
Il asked you to do so, mother" he an
swers, more briefly. "She is recovering a
little now. Where is her room? l viii
carry her to it."
''She-she always has had the sam.
ioom, she always preferred it," Mrs. Lew
ellyn says, coughing, and rather STUN
bling ever her words; Eric, my dear, let
her stay here; this is a larger room, and
and more comfortable, or, tSe spare
.E92m" 92m"..s,aSsss.s.s.'
No; viii take .Ier to hcr 81 4pos4s
she will like that best" he answers with
a passing curiosity as to why his mother
objects to his doing so.
As soon as he enters it, and lays his poo.
young wife, half insensible still, down on
the mattress of her poor, narrow little
bed, he sees why his mother objected to
his entering the room, and perceiving, as
he cannot fail to do, the glaring inferi-
ority of the dingy, faded, damp-stained
old room-perfectly clean and neat as it
is-to the elegant comfort Of the bedrooms
on the first hoor-his mothers apartments,
and Hester's, of which he has caught
sight through the open door as he passed,
carrying his hapless girl-wife in his arms.
Past those warmly carpeted and curtained
chambers -glittering with freight, and
polished woods, and marble slabs, and
handsome china fittings. and dainty lace
and embroideries, and all manner of small
womanly luXuries-up the stairs to the
cold, dreary room where Muriel has slept
since her childhood, the room which has,
SO far from sharing in the general adorn-
ing and renovating of the other parts of
the house, been denuded of every scrap
of ornament or luxury; partly demanded
by imperious Hester's whim, partly yield
ed by Muriel in utter disregard of herself,
in utter heart-sickness of her life and
everything connected with it
He lays her tenderly down, and puts
the one small hard pillow under the droop-
Ing, helpless head, and then he looks
around the room slowly, and at his moth
er once more.
Mother, please send some one up to
make a fire in this miserable room," he
says. and Mrs. Llewellyn winces at every
word-"it is as cold and comfortless as a
London garrett And will stay here with
her until the doctor comes," he adds, de-
cisively.