Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-05-24


Conway Is the last man In the world to
wish to be hard on a woman-s young
woman, his uncle's widow. He will
not expect or wish you to leave such
purely personal things as these behind >
"I prefer it. said Mary.
"Most ladies in your circumstances
would have stripped the house, he per-
sisted, land would have left nothing
but the bare chairs and tables"
"Perhaps. but I am not one Of those
ladies, and besides I wish to take moth
ing away to remind me of-of'-
"Yesf"
THAT once lived here" she said,
with sudden fash Of feeling, the first
that she had shown.
"Oh, we'll, of course If that Is the
way the''-he had been on the point Of
saying "the cat jumps" but broke the
homely simile off short-"if that is how
you feel. Mrs. Conway, 1t Is no use my
suggesting anything else"
"But it is very kind Of you to feel an
interest in me-" said Mary, a smile
breaking over her face for the first time
81 shall never forget it. I thank you. I"
A few minutes later she had passed
out of the house and away from her old
life forever.
She had made her plans carefully
with view to furthering her resources
to the uttermost- had taken single
room in respectable house in Blooms
bury. She was not destitute, for she
had still nearly e10O to call her own
Mrs Hamilton's life had been insured
for sum which had almost covered the
cost Of her illness and burial, and Mary
had bought her mourning with keen
eye to economy; in fact, she had spent
and meant to spend nothing that she
could possibly avoid. She knew that, II
need be, she could live for year on her
little store. and she knew, too, that it
was totally different thing to seek a
living free and Independent, as she was,
to seeking it while tied and hampered
with an invalid mother.
But she did not find it an easy thing
to drop into pleasant, comfortable po-
sition. such as she wanted, by no means
For several weeks she tramped to and
fro, here and there. always seeking
something more or less indefinite, a
something which she found it difficult
to describe in words
Then she pulled herself up short and
began to think the situation out in q
different way, and she came to the con-
clusion that she could not 60 on in this
vague, indefinite way; that she must
make up her mind to follow certain
course, and she must follow it. The
question was what She went over all
the openings which she had already
tried to follow up, and she came. after
much anxious cogitation. to the con-
clusion that there were only left to her
now-either Of which che might take as
her meter and train herself to become
proficient in-nursing and typewriting.
She inquired fully into the merits
and dement's Of both. She found that
she could properly qualify for nurse
under training Of at least three years
Even then she would not have got to
the top Of the tree. and it was more
than likely that long before three years
had gone by she would have broken
down, for she was not physically OF
constitutionally an especially strong
person. If all the tales she heard OF
hospital or infirmary training were
true, she felt that month or six weeks
would about show her how fruitless ii
was for her to attempt career of which
magnificent health and nerve are the
very first requisites
So practically the career Of nurse