Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-07-01
THURSDAY JULY l. 1897

alone issued from them in low and
thrilling whisper.
Before she had OWNED his intention,
he had caught in his the little gloved
fingers and raised them to his lips.
The next moment the gate swung to
between them, and Marie, flying to
her own room, had flung herself in a
burst of bitter sobbing on the bed.
He was a Prussian, and she-hated
him.
Three days later she paused beside
two surgeons in earnest conversation.
"There's but one way to save him,
said one. "It's an ugly wound, but
he's sinking from loss of blood. If We
could get some one to submit to trans
fusion, think he would recover.
Impossible p answered the other.
And Marie passed on to the room
where lay the sufferer. She paused
beside the cot. He was lying, white
and insensible, upon the pillow, his
head bound in blood-stained bandages;
but, all changed as he was, she recog-
nized him, and fell, with a low cry,
beside him.
To her he was nameless, but he was
the Prussian whom she-hated, and
the man whom she-loved
All, in that moment she knew the
truth, and then she remembered the
surgeons words. They were about
separating when she returned to them.
You said TRANSMISSION would save
him" she said Il am strong and l
am ready
And rolling back her sleeve, she dis
closed her bare, white arm, with its
dimly-outlined blue veins.
A little while the physicians de-
INJURED, but in the end she had her
way.
She did not shudder as the sharp
lancet penetrated her vein, and the
faintness which crept over her-the
deadly faintness-as the blood poured
from her veins into his, was ecstacy /;
for though to her it might mean death,
to him it was life-her life for his.
She swooned before the operation
was completed, and days had passed
before she could rally even to know
that her sacrifice had not been in vain
days when Paris had been racked
by a bitterer foe than the hated Prus-
sian, even her own inhabitants.
But the terrible days were over,
when Marie was allowed to once more
assume her role as nurse. Ernest
Haupfman was still in need of all her
care; but when she stood once again
beside him, he looked at her with wide
open conscious eye, into which, as he
recognized her, there came a look Of
inefable happiness.
my love !" he murmured, and then
he fell asleep, with her hand clasped
tight in his.
Through long weeks she nursed him
weeks which taught her that all her
future must be wretchedness, since her
promise to her dead father forbade
that she should share it.
How dared she tell Ernest Of it un-
til he spoke the words which unsealed
her silence.
But one evening as they sat together
in the twilight, he almost wholly con-
valescent now, he spoke them, as, in
low, endearing accents, he asked her
to be his wife.
Amid hitter sobs she told him all
then, and hid her face within her
hands. But he gently drew them
down, and drew her head upon his
heart.
my own, he said, your sacrifice
has borne its fruit. Your husband
must boast French blood in his veins,
forsooth Have l, then none in mine?
Did you not mingle yours with mine
the very blood of Pierre Duval, him
self? All, Marie, keep your VOW to
your dead father, and keeping it give
yourself to me-"
In silent rapture Marie listened to
the words; but, as her arms closely
clasped themselves about his neck, he
knew that he had won bis cause, and
that she had gone over forever to the
enemy.
Seed Scattering.