The times., 1897-01-22
HER DEAFNESS.

Christina Phillipson arose one May
morning with keen sense of disaster up.
On her.
She drew the blind back. The spring
sunshine flooded the little suburban street
In which she lived. Quiet and peaceful IL
looked, so much so that a passing milk
man, wonderful to relate, refrained from
disturbing it with his yells and clatter-
at least Christina did not hear him.
Slowly she proceeded to dress, and still
present with her was a sense Of apprehen-
sion and anxiety. She did not feel very
well either, and there was faint buzzing
at the back of her head. Her movements
she fancied were singularly noiseless that
morning, or else she was very much alb
stracted. She did not even remember to
have heard the plash Of the water as it fell
from the jug into the basin. She wondered
| for a second or two with an idle half
formed wonder, and then passed down in
softly falling felt slippers to her little sit
ting room. There was a conspiracy of
silence abroad, it seemed, for even the
stairs of the i'll built house forgot once tc
creak.
Christina rang the bell for breakfast,
and rang twice, for she did not catch the
hrst faint tinkle The servant who brought
In the tray looked cross, and Christina no.
ticed that she did not respond to her Good
morning!'
With faint sigh over the capricious-
oess Of servants, Christina poured herself
out some tea. There was queer feeling
upon her, such feeling as might we'll be
experienced by one under spell or suffer-
Ing from that impairment of consciousness
rut,i inI, 1a ha J>axx 90
the very back of her head there went on a
busy, ceaseless buzzing "What depressed
fool 1 am" she thought to herself and
laughed aloud. And her laugh seemed to
her to sound as If it came from her brain.
"Really," reflected Christina again, IT
never remember to have felt so odd in my
life before. 1 will play little to set my
oerves in order.
She moved toward the pretty little piano
that stood in the corner of the room, but
stopped with her hand on the lid, seized
by sudden and unaccountable fear.
With a quick, resolute movement she
dung the lid back and struck full chord
with both hands on the keyboard. There
was no sound, and although she struck
again and again the dreadful silence Of the
eoom remained unbroken.
Then Christina recognized that she had
become stone deaf and sat down with O
scared face to try and realize what it meant
Tor her.
1t meant good deal-in fact, so much
chat she considered seriously whether un-
der the altered conditions it would be
worth while to continue living.
Music had been to her the central fact of
life around which everything else in her
world revolved Now the center had been
torn away, chaos was come again.
Never to hear music morel Harmony,
melody, rhythm, the exquisite cadence Of
the human voice, the witchery of the or
obestra, the divine solemnity of the organ,
even the sounds of nature-the whisper of
the wind, the waves beating on the shore
ell to be henceforward but fantastic
mockery. She could not hear to think of
1t. Her very soul seemed to be stifled
Then came glimmer of hope. The sem
tence might not be final. She would con.
suit specialist at once. BY chance she
had heard of such one. Gathering to-
gether her small stock of ready money she
dressed hastily and set forth
The streets as sho passed through them
were nightmare. Carts, carriages, cabs
passed without a sound horrible noise
lessness had fallen upon the noisy thor
oughfares. The failure of one slight link
in the mechanism of sense had in mo-
ment reduced the world to dumb show.
Some one in the omnibus spoke to Chris
tinas and she flushed painfully and touch
ed her car.
expert who examined her in exchange for
the two guineas she paid him. He gave
her to understand that there was some af-
ify, ~ o,1li hn
might perhaps be localized as result of
an operation. Whether the operation would
be successful was uncertain, but it was
bound to be dangerous and expensive.
Christina possessed the profound horror
of physical pain which so often and not
quite worthily distinguishes the artistic
temperament. She shrank from having
this doubtful experiment practiced upon
herself and left the gloomy house in Har-
ley street as despairing a damsel as could
be found at that particular moment in
the county Of London, which Is saying
much.
During tho next few days of hopeless
misery Christina suffered incredibly The
piano seemed to mock her. The few
friends who called tortured her almost to
distraction by shaking their heads and
writing condolences on scraps of paper or
by using the deaf and dumb alphabet to
convey bald platitudes concerning resigna-
ton.
In the extremity of her despair poor
Christina determined to isolate her life
from all the ties that had grown up
around it. She felt that she would be
more comfortablein country cottage than
in London.
There at least che need not be Knocked
and distressed by having her calamity
brought home to her at every turn.
1t was not difficult for her to SO order
her affairs as TO attain the solitude she do
sired. A small annuity sufliced for the
life she intended to lead, and death had
freed her from all obligations of relation
ship. But there was one tie which 1t hurt
her to break. This was nothing less than
marriage engagement of years stand
Ing with young engineer, who was at
that time seeking in South Africa the
means to make matrimony feasible For
herself Christina felt that, stricken as she
was, marriage was1mpossible. In fare