The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-06-22

They found Mr.. Gilbert lying on the
floor unconscious
on the other, and for a moment there
was a wild fear in Dorothy's heart that
her father had in some way killed him
self. His business failure had been
the great humiliation of his life.
Kirk put her mind at rest.
HE has had a shock or stroke of
some kind" He lifted the body up,
placed it on the lounge and instantly
ran out of the house for the doctor who
lived only a few doors away.
When he came, he pronounced the
case serious, but gave Dorothy hope.
Malcolm Kirk came back. but in the
excitement he could do nothing but
express his sympathy and finally go
back to his room after the presidents
wife and some others had come in to
stay with Dorothy for the night.
Mr.. Gilbert had been a typical New
England business man OF the old
school. When his failure came and
he had begun to recover from the first
effect of the blow, he had no thought
of any other course but to pay dollar
for dollar of his honest Indebtedness.
To do it meant the loss of his beautiful
home in Hermon. Dorothy felt as he
did about it. He had no fears on her
score. The integrity and frmness of
such a moral course We're never in
question with either of them. So he
had come back from where he had
been staying with his sister, and the
night Kirk called he was busy in his
library arranging the business of the
Hermon property, going over all the
details of his recent loss and making
what provision he could for the fu-
ture. He was nearly So, still, as he
supposed, in the prime Of life, and he
manfully determined to begin all over
again. He could leave Dorothy with
her aunt, who was alone much of the
time and needed her at present, and
himself struggle into place again with
honor untarnished and the good name
of the firm free from commercial stain.
So the honest, sturdy publisher
thought as he sat at his desk with his
papers before him. Then suddenly,
Just a little after Dorothy had ceased
to play, he felt a new and awful pain
seize him, he reeled in his chair, vain.
ly tried to call out for help and sank
, unconscious to the floor.
, The next few days We're days of
: great anxiety to Malcolm Kirk. He
, could see the doctors carriage before
. the Gilbert house every morning. One
morning he saw the doctor go up the
: steps with another a who entered
with him. The Doctors carriage re
NAMED in front of the house that day
!, until noon. In the afternoon Kirk call
!, ed to inquire, and the servant came ou'
:. at the back porch and told him Mr.. Gil
!. bert had been sinking rapidly. A cele
brated physician from Boston had beef
in consultation, and he said there wa.
little hope.
Kirk passed an almost sleeples.
night, and next morning as he looked
across the campus he knew that til,
4 woman he loved best was alone witt
4 her grief. He could see the wreath o
flowers on the door, and it told him !.
o once that John Gilbert had passed on
never more to be vexed with the strug
Gle of the life that now is on thu
n earth.
The week following was one of tn
most trying that Malcolm Kirk eve
knew. The funeral of John Gilber
"a was held in the seminary chapel an,
n attended by the professors and towns
people generally. Dorothy's aunt wa
~ with her. Kirk had no opportunity t
"a see Dorothy and be to her the cOmfol
he longed to be. 1t was agony to hir
~ after the funeral was over to thin
that there across the campus in til
great house was the he love
passing through a great sorrow, and h
had no right to go to her n shar
m that sorrow with her. He felt as if h
10 could not break in on her grief to spea
even of his love. So the days passe
r. restlessly for him. and he tried to wor
A~