Middletown transcript., 1899-03-18

lltttv udiiS VI tn6 SEAT III uoI liBph
tience and lOUked out again.
= Il policeman appeared, shouting in
2 audible directions, and pressing forward
e through the crowd, which gave way
6 reluctantly Oh either side. In her un'
I govelnable impatience she let down
b tie window and beckoned him to come
nearer.
S "Cau't we 60 on?" she cried. 81
am i'll hurry. What is The meaning
/ of this cruwd2'
! ''They have come e. Sc e The fire,
ma'am, the policeman answered civily.
'Pm afraid you will have to goround -
J but We are almost there-the Ran
gun club!" she cried.
''Il's 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 the
fire we'll in hand by this time and every
oDe is out"
"All safep" Mrs. Trelawney gasped.
swell, a 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?n
'The gentleman who did such great
things out in Burmah few years ago
Major Trelawney."
"My husbandp
1t seemed to her that she had known
it all the time. She saw, az if in a
dream, the sudden pity and respect in
the policeman's face, and then she CIV
cred her own and sank back in the
carriage.
The long agony of the drive seemed
interminable, and yet "hen at last the
carriage stopped she sat quite still for
moment unable to nerve herself for
the next move. Then the door was
opened, and, as if in dream, she pass
ed up the steps, walking firmly, her
face white and her eyes set and hard.
Her apparent heartlessness was silently
noted at the time and aftefward freely
commented on in the servants hall.
Had they brought him-it-home?
she wondered with long shudder.
She was in the hall now and some one
Was hurrying to meet her-the doctor.
She was not surprised to see him there.
In her dreamlike state n thing seemed
strange anymore.
II have bad Dews for you, Mrs.
Trelawney."
II know-I knowp she answered
In her unreasoning misery
she was annoyed by his hushed tone.
Her own voice was unnaturally shrill ,
and strained, aud the doctor raised his ,
hand in protest.
"What heartless creatures these
pretty women aFel" he was thinking ,,
an unconscious echo of The servants
opinion. j. Il
81 must beg Of you to control your
self" he said steruly. Everything
depends on quiet. His life is Eauging
on thread"
His life? Oh, Cool Then he is not /,
dead?"
She had brushed past the doctor, /.
deaf to his remonstrances. With :.
flying feet, she was up the !.
staircase and moment later kueeling
by her husbands s bedside.
The doctor, following rapidly, stood I
arrested at the door, looking in at the i
darkened roomp the kneeling white
figure, with clasped hands and large, c
fixed eyes, the swathed wreck of man $
lying very still on the bed.
One hand lay outside the coverlet. s
Her own stole out slowly, hungrily, i
toward it, as if her own daring scared
her. She bowed over the bandaged
hand and knelt On motionless. The Q
doctor, watching and quite forgetting {
his scathing condemnation Of mo /
meit before, thought with swift con- 4
tempt OF certain reports concerning the c
Trelawneys' domestic happiness which 7
had reached his ears. c
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: "Horacel Oh, HoraceP' Z
The doctor sprang forward and then
drew back. The injured mans eyes
had opened and were fixed on the c
white figure with an ex-
preston of mingled awe, unbelief, bliss,
'"CIaraF' said the faiplest whisper. r
in the world. h
The doctor could scarcely hear it. i
He did not know that the old pet name y
had meyer been nsed for years. london +
Forget i