The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-10-15

slowly, and a weak voice whispered:
II knew she'd come. Now I'll hear
her,"
Rena stood at the foot of the bed, for
the first time in her life painfully en-
barrassed.
"What shall recite?" she asked ap-
pealingly of the women.
They sat with decorously folded
hands.
Something suitable to the occa-
sion," one said, primly.
Rena thought a shade of protest
fitted across the white face on the bed.
Little Boy Blue" flashed to her be-
wildered memory, and she eagerly
caught at it. Even to herself her voice
had never sounded so pathetic as she
told the tender little story.
When she finished, the two stolid
women were wiping their eyes. and
heavy tears lay on the sick woman's
white cheeks. Again she opened those
weary eyes, and to the girls thought
there was beckoning in them. She fol-
lowed her impulse. and bent over the
bed.
Now neutrality-suspicious. the
woman gasped.
Asudden inspiration flashed to Rena's
mind. She stood well out in the room
and commenced the Chariot Race"
from Ben Hur." Both nature and art
had done a great deal for her in an
elocutionary way. She had recited be-
| fore critical friends, and envious ones,
| before eNacting, cultivated audiences,
but her widest fancy had never placed
her in so difficult position as this.
The homely room, with it's chilling
quiet, the death-like auditor on the bed,
her solemn eyes following every move
ment, was oppressive and uncanny, but
| never had she recited as she did that
day.
The great amphitheater with its bril-
liant, frenzied populace, the rush and
trample of the horses, the breathless
hush, the crash of the wild chariots,
the triumph of the matchless Arabs
and their wonderful driver, swayed and
surged and beat through the room like
mighty wind.
The two women sat with open
mouths and staring eyes.
The man had come inside the door
and stood erect, clenching his hands in
| his excitement.
THAT was race as was q race" he
said, in n loud, resonant voice, forget
full for an instant of everything but the
story.
Then they looked toward the bed.
The sick woman was sitting up.
| "Oh!" she cried, with a note of long
drawn ecstasy. then fell back ex-
hausted.
"She's dead!" cried Rem, in q quiver
of fear.
There was horror-stricken instant.
Then she reused and spoke almost
strongly, grasping convulsively the
girls warm, dimpled hand in her cold,
wasted fingers.
maybe I'll live till tomorrow, if
you'll promise to come again."
"I'll surely come" Rena said, softly,
then slipped out.
She was full of her odd experience,
but she told it at the dinner table that
evening with touch of hesitancy. Some
how she did not feel like having much
said about it.
Dr. Randolph was there, too, and she
wondered anXiously what he would
think. Somehow, the recitation of a
thing like that to dying woman sud
denly seemed rude and ill-timed. Her
cheeks burned.
The doctor looked at her thought
fully.
POSSIBLY you can cure her, Miss
Rena," he said. Sometimes in a low
fever the patient gets apathetic and in
different, and slips away from sheer
lack of energy. Maybe you can reverse
the idea somewhat, and, as a second
Scheherazde, chain the poor woman to
life by your eloquence."
He looked up and caught the deep
flush on Rena's face.
81 beg your pardon, Miss Rena, am
not entirely joking. do not know the
case, but that result is not impossible.
How about tomorrow, though? Had
you forgotten the golf match? l be-
lieve the party is to start at seven and
return by moon rise"
Rena caught her breath.
81 had forgotten" she answered.
She sat silent, hardly touching her
dessert. The party going out next
morning were just the people she liked
The exhilarating spin over the perfect
roads in the lovely, fragrant June morn
ing; the informal dinner at the charm
ing clubhouse; the moonlight return
and DR.. Randolph. 1t was so seldom he
spared time for an outing.
"It would be absurd to give up such a
lovely day just for the mere possibility
of benefit to the woman. Why, the doc
tor half made fun of it himself"
Then her promise flashed to her mind.
''I don't seem to be doing much of
anything else lately but forget; that
settles it, though" she thought,
Strengthening up energetically; "of
course 1 can't CO."
People think rapidly, and Rena, look
ing up at the end of her cogitations, no.
ticed they were all silent, as though
waiting for her to go on.
81 really did forget about.the Downs,
and promised her to come back, so of
course can't CO." she said, decidedly.
but l wish you wouldn't mention it to
anyone, because l don't do it for good
ness, you know, but simply because l
promised"
The next morning she gathered a
great handful of dewy pink and white
roses before she went to the little white