Middletown transcript., 1901-01-26
The side Of the sick husband.

her shapely head flashed light into every
corner of the darkened sick-room.
II thought I'd just run in and see how
you were before anybody came," she
said, lightly. Dinner is at quarter to
eight, you know. I do wish you could
be down. We shall miss you dreadfully.
OF course / sent out at the last minute
and got man to fill your place, so we
shall sit down with twenty-four all right;
but then"
Here she broke of, having caught
sight of the third person in the room.
$50 this is the nurse Dr. Cheeyer sent
for?" she went on. ''I'm sure she'll take
good care of you, John-the doctor is al
ways so careful. And if you hadn't had
somebody with you I shouldn't have
liked to leave you all alone-really
shouldn't"
With that she circled about the bed
again, turning toward the door.
81 must be off now," she explained.
II can't be wasting my time on you in
this way. I really ought to be down in
the drawing-room now; and first, I've got
to see if the flowers are all right on the
table,,
Her husbands eyes had followed her
wistfully about the room, watching every
one of her easy and graceful movements;
and when at last she slipped out of the
door, it was moment before he turned
an inquiring glance on the nurse, as
though to discover what she thought OF
the brilliant vision.
The nurse came to the side of the bed,
with her clinical thermometer in her
hand.
"You are awake now," she said, with
a pleasant smile: "may take your tenn
perature?"
Five minutes later, when she was en-
tering in her notebook the high degree
shown by the thermometer, and when
the patient had again dropped off to
sleep, the first guests began to arrive for
the wife's dinner party.
The thick snow made the wheels in
audible, but the nurse heard the doors of
the carriages slam, as those who had been
invited passed through the canvas tunnel
one after another. In the room next to
the dressing-room assigned to her for her
own use there was rustling of silken
stuffs, and there were fragments of con-
versation now and again SO loudly pitched
as to reach the ear of the young
woman who sat silent in the sick-cham-
Der. Then, when all the guest, were
come, the house sank again into silence,
and a tall clock in corner of the stairs
chimed forth the hour of eight.
Sc long as her patient slept | the The
had little or nothing to do; but though
her body was motionless, her thoughts
were busy. She was country-bred her
self; she had left her home in "a little
New England village by the sea to make
her way in the world. She had now been
trained nurse for nearly two years; and
yet, as it happened, her work had been
either in hotels or in families of only
moderate means. This was the first time
she had been in SO handsome house OF
with people of so much wealth. She
could not help being conscious of her
surroundings, and she caught herself
wishing that she too were rich. She
confessed that she would like to be a
guest at the dinner below. She won-
dered what dinner table for twenty
four must be. To be able to entertain as
layishly as that, and not to have to worry
about the arrangement, or the cost, or
anything-well, that would be an exist
ence any woman must delight in. She
felt herself capable of expanding, and OF
being equal to the enjoyment of any de-
gree of luxury. She liked her occupa-
ton, for she had chosen her own calling.
She had been successful in it too; and
yet she was beginning to be little afraid
that she had miscalculated her strength.
The work was very laborious and con-
fining, and more than once of late she
had felt overtaxed It might be that in
year or two her reserve force would be
exhausted, and she would have to give
up the struggle and go back home, where
she would be welcome, of course, but
where she would add to the burdens her
mother was already laden with.
There was an alternative, and never
before had it seemed to her SO tempting
as when she was sitting there alone with
the sick man in the darkened corner
room of his great house. She might
marry More than once she had been
asked in marriage; and one man had
asked her more than once. He was
persistent, and he still declined to
to accept her refusal as final. He was
not an old man yet, although he was
twice her age. He was rich man, even
if he was not as wealthy as the owner
of the splendid but depressing home
where she now sat silently musing. She
did not love him, that was true, and
there was no doubt about it; but she did
respect him, and she had heard that
sometimes love comes after marriage.
He could let her have all she longed for,
and he was ready to give her everything
he had. If she married him, she too
could have dinners of twenty-four, and
wear a rope of pearls and diamond
tiara; and then, too, she could do SO
much good with money if she had it.
In the course of her service in the
hospital, and afterward among the poor,
she had seen many case of sore distress
which she had been unable to relieve.
If she had riches she could accomplish
much that was now impossible; she
could do good in many ways; she could
relieve suffering and aid the impover-
ished and help the feeble far more
adroitIy and skilfully than could any
woman who had always been wealthy,
and who had not had her experience of
life and of its misfortunes and its miser- |