Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-12-14


pavement was thronged with people
all going the same way, oddly enough,
as it occurred to her after moment.
There were so many Of them that pres
emily the carriage was blocked and
obliged to go slowly. She beat her little
bands on the seat in her impatience
and looked out again.
A policeman appeared, shouting in
audible directions, and pressing forward
through the crowd, which gave way
reluctantly on either side. In her un-
governable impatience she let down the
window and beokoned him to come
nearer.
Cant we get on?" she cried. 81 am
in hurry. What is the meaning Of
this crowd?"
"They have come to sec the fire.
ma'am," the policeman answered civil
lily. "I'm afraid you will have to go
round.''
81 But we are almost there-the Ran.
| gun olubl" she cried.
sits the club that is on fire, ma am,'
the policeman answered. Then, as she
turned white, be added kindly, Don't
be frightened, ma am; they've got tho
fire we'll in hand by this time and every
one is out. -
All safer" Mrs. Trelawney gasped.
"Well, few broken bones and such
like" said the policeman cheerfully.
Nothing to speak Of, ma am-only
one gentleman killed. A sad business
that.
"Who?'
The gentleman who did such great
things out in Burma a few years ago
Major Trelawney. .
my husband
It seemed to her that she had known
it all the time. She saw, as if in a
dream, the sudden pity and respect in
the policeman's face, and then che COW
| cred her own and sank back in the car
riage.
The long agony of the drive seemed
interminable, and yet when at last the
carriage stopped she sat quite still for a
moment, unable to nerve herself for the
next move. Then the door was opened,
and, as if in q dream, she passed up the
steps, walking firmly, her face white
and her eyes set and hard Her appar-
emit heartlessness was silently noted at
the time and afterward freely COM
mented on in the servants hall.
Had they brought him-it-home:
she wondered with long shudder. She
was in the ball now and some one was
hurrying to meet her-the doctor. She
was not surprised to see him there. In
her dreamlike state nothing seemed
strange any more.
81 have bad news for you, Mrs. Tre-
lawney."
II know-I knowl'' she answered
petulantly. In her unreasoning misery
she was annoyed by his hushed tone.
Her own voice was unnaturally shrill
and strained, and the doctor raised his
hand in protest.
"What heartless creatures these pref
II women arei" he was thinking-an
unconscious echo of the servants opin-
ion.
81 must beg Of you to control your.
self, " he said sternly. Everything de-.
/ ponds on quiet. His life is hanging on
/ thread
"His lifc2 oh, God! Then he is not
! dead?"
4 She had brushed past the doctor, deaf
to his circumstances. With noiseless,
flying feet, she was up the staircase and
a moment later kneeling by her hus-
bands bedside.
The doctor, following rapidly, stood
arrested at the door, looking in at the
darkened room. the kneeling white fig
ure, with clasped hands and large, fixed
eyes. the swatbed wreck Of a man lying
very still on the bed.
One hand lay outside the ooverlet
Her own stole out slowly, hungrily, to-
ward it, as il her own daring scared
her She bowed her head over the band
4 aged hand at last and knelt on motion.
less. The doctor, watching and quite
forgetting his scathing condemnation OF
moment before, thought with swift
contempt of certain reports concerning
the Trelawneys' domestic happiness
which had reached his ears
Something came before his shrewd,
Keen eyes which blurred the picture be.
fore him. He turned aside for mo-
ment and then was recalled by swift
low cry: Horacei Oh, Horace
The doctor sprang forward and then
drew back. The injured mans eyer
had opened and were fixed on the SHIN
mering white figure with an expression
of mingled awe, unbelief, bliss.
"Claral' said the faintest whisper il
the world.
a The doctor could scarcely hear it. HI
did not know that the old pet name hat
never been used for years. -I.ondor
Forget Me-Not.
Goats vs.. Cows.
! French physicians have for some time