Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-11-15

all, but those to whom tate had Deen
unkind, to shelter from the fiery lances
of old Sol.
At Gray Manse the members of the
family had sought comfort in the cool
er air on the wide, vine-bowered piazza
and the serving people might be
found seeking the same solace in the
grove back of the cook house. The
evening papers were filed with &C
counts of victims of the invaders fury
and told of the hospitals filed with
persons overcome by the heat"
But Madam Grey and her daughter,
Janet, were more concerned about the
dispatches from Mexico. yellow
Jack" was raging along the gulf coast.
The latest news reported that the vii
lagos along the lula river had been al.
most wiped out Of existence. The tenn
porary hospitals flying the yellow
flag" at Panuco were overcrowded.
Physicians were not plenty and were
overworked; nurses, there were none,
but the natives.
The newspaper correspondent wrote
that no news had been received for two
weeks from the outlying plantations
and that it was feared that the plant
ers had succumbe0 to the yellow
plague.
AS Janet Grey read the dispatches t.
her mother her face whitened and in
the tightening lines about her mouth
Madam Grey thought she read the
birth of some new resolve which no OPP
position could weaken.
Then as the soft moonlight illumined
the younger woman's face, and in that
pale light there seemed something al
most divine in the inspiration that
shone from within the beng of her
sweet southern beauty, she broke the
silence: Mother, must go to him."
The mothers answer came softly, re-
signedly, but with no reproach: "At
once, love. Poor Jsck!" Then two
pairs of hands became as one and the
pale moon peeping between the leaves
wondered at two women weeping in
each others arms.
Next morning among the passengers
on the fast express flying swiftly
southwark was q young woman who
might be 25 and whose sweet, sad face
contraSted strangely with the air OF
eager impotence which enveloped her.
A grip at her feet bore the initials ~.
G." Sixty miles an hour seemed slow to
Janet.
Five years before Janet Grey, an
only daughter, had been a student in
the New York training school for
nurses. Not because she needed a pro.
fession, she told herself, but because
she wished to be able to be useful. II
was hobby, a firmly rooted hobby, OF
a young woman who was to be some
day owner Of some of the finest land in
Virginia.
So when Jack Masters, a childhood
playmate and the son of an old family
friend, sought her love and twice asked
her to become his wife, she, though she
was very fond Of him, had twice put
him off and had refused to conSi6el
matrimony as a serious possibility UNI
til she had won her diploma as a
trained nurse.
Furthermore, she had limited to Jack
that she was not sure of his constancJ
and that she had doubts about his busi
ness ability; for it was common prop
erty that, though Jack had inherited 6
most desirable estate, the young gen
tleman had not cone all that might b.
expected of him as a landed proprie
tor, and that Masters hall was not tn,
hall of the old time.
Madam Grey had enlisted under hi
standard and had fought nobly fol-
him; but Janet remained firm in he
resolve, as she usually cid. She sal,
that ii he was of the same mind whe7
she had completed her four years
training as nurse he might again
seek to win her. She would hear NJ
more on the subject until then.
In a fit of what he considered right
eous Indignation at this decree, Jacl
sold out Masters hall, purchased cot
fee plantation near the banks of tn
lula river in Mexico, and had takel
himself off. Before his departure h
had broken taboo, and had again
sought to win Miss Grey from her reso
luton, but she remained obdurate, II
left vowing to prove himself man 0
business, and that he would return i,
iye years, and would then carry he
Of whether she would or not.
Five years, because that time wa
needed to put his new purchase in tn
best paying condition; also a yea
longer than Janet's taboo, because tn
young man sought to Guido her in tn
matter of obstinacy. Somehow he fed
sure that Janet Nved him, at any rat
she loved no one else.
Letters passed to and fro frequentl
during the first four years. Youn
Masters always sent his love and ~
4yec:s TO -Motnsr Grey but new
once showed any disposition TO aga
break taboo. For some reason this Wi
not ali 10 the liking of Miss Janet. 81
had discovered soon after he left II
Mexico that she did love him, and tn
her profession was not just what 81
wanted most, after all; but she was Il
proud to say so, and she complete
her course and became a fuN-fedg'
ulster of the Red Cross in due time.
Early in the fifth year something hi
} happened. Something seemed to pr
strangely at Janet's heart strings. Ii
ters came but irregularly from MexiC
and during the last ten months no Il
tiers were received from Masters. T'
of her own letters remained una
swered and a third had been return
to her by the post Office. A letter sc
J to the Mexican postmaster brought
reply, and now this dreadful yellS
fever plague had stricken the La
where Masters plantation waslocatt
Now, as she was speeding swift
, over the rails toward Mexico, s
Wondered over these things. Did 81