Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1899-04-05

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
hands on the seat in her impatience
xnd looked out again.
A policeman appeared, shouting in
audible directions, and pressing forward
through the crowd, which gave way
reluctantly on either side. - her un-
governable impotence she let down the
window and beckoned him to come
nearer.
"Oan't we get on?" she cried. II am
in hurry. What il the meaning Of
this crowd?"
"They have come to see the fire.
ma am" the policeman answered civil
ly. ''I'm afraid you will have to 60
round"
but we are almost there-the Ran
gun clubw she cried.
"It's the club that is on fire, ma 'am,"
the policeman answered. Then, as she
turned white, he added kindly, "Don't
be frightened, ma'am; they've got the
fire we'll in hand by this time and every
one is out"
"All safe?" Mrs. Trelawney gasped.
"Well, few broken bones and such
like" said the policeman oheerfully.
Nothing to speak Of, 'am-only
one gentleman killed. A sad business
that"
"Who?''
"The gentleman who did such great
things out in Burma few years ago
Major Trelawney."
"My husband!"
1t 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 she 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
moment. unable to nerve herself for the
next move. Then the door was opened,
and, as if in dream, she passed up the
steps, walking firmly, her face white
and her eyes set and hard. Her appar-
ent heartlessness was silently noted at
the time and afterward freely COM
mented or. in the servants hail.
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. Ire
lawney."
II know-I know" 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
ty women are" he was thinking-an
unconscious echo of the servants opin-
ion.
II must beg Of you to control your
self. !" he said sternly. Everything de-
ponds on quiet. His life is hanging on
a thread.
"His life? Oh, Godl Then he is not
dead?"
She had brushed past the doctor, deaf
to his rsmonstrances. With noiseless,
flying feet, she was up the staircase and
moment later kneeling by her h1s-
bands bedside.
The doctor, following rapidly, stood
arrested at the door, looking in at the
darkened room. the kneeling white fig
ure. with olasped hands and large, fixed
eyes, the swatbed wreck Of man lying
very still on the bed.
One hand lay outside the coverlet.
Her own stole out slowly, hungrily, to-
ward it, as if her own daring scared
her. She bowed her head over the band
aged hand at last and knelt on motion
less. The doctor, watching and quite
forgetting his scathing condemnation of
a moment before, thought with a 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 a mo-
ment and then was recalled by swift.
low cry: Horace Oh, Horacep'
The doctor sprang forward and then
drew back. The injured mans eyes
had opened and were fixed ON the SHIN
meriDg white figure with an expression
Of mingled awe, unbelief, bliss.
"Clara" said the faintest whisper in
the world.
The doctor could scarcely hear it. He
did not know that the old pet name had
never been used for years. London
Forget Me-Not.
ELI introduced to the Audience.
ALI Clark of Hopkinsville was local