The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1901-06-20


. He moved restlessly, and she went to-
him. His face was flushed now; his
breath came rapid " and shortly; there
was some fever on him. The linen was
displaced from his wounds. She dip
ped it again in water and laid the cool
ed bands on them. All, bah! If L.
were not unsexed enough for this, how
would it be with you noW?' she said in
her teeth. He tossed YEARLY to and
fro. Detached words caught her ear
as he muttered them:
Let it be; let it be! He is welcome!
How could prove it at his cost? l
saved him. could do that. It was
not much"-
She listened with intent anxiety to
hear the other whispers ending the
sentence, but they were stif1ed and
broken. ~. -. 800.
"Listen" she murmured below her
breath. ut is for some other he has
ruined himself"
She could not catch the words that
followed. They were in an unknown
language to her, for she knew nothing
OF English, and they poured fast and
obscure from his lips as he moved in
feverish unrest; the wine had saved
him from exhaustion, infaming his
brain in his sleep. Now and then
French phrases crossed the English
ones. She leaned down to seize their
meaning till her cheek was against his
forehead, till her lips touched his hair,
and at that half caress her heart beat,
her face flushed, her mouth trembled
with a too vivid joy, with an impulse,
half fear and half longing, that had
never so moved her before.
IF 1 had my birthright," he muir.
INJURED in her own tongue-"if I had it,
would she look so cold then? She might
love me-women used once O God,
If she had not looked on me I had
never known all have lost!'
Cigarette started as if knife had
stabbed her and sprang up from her
rest beside him.
Observation-Disclosures shcv' she mutter-
ed fiercely, while her face grew duski-
ly scarlet in the fire glow of the tent,
and she went slowly away, back to the
low wood fire.
This was to be ever her reward.
Her eyes glistened and flashed with
the fiery, vengeful passions of her hot
and jealous instincts, yet she did not
leave him.
She was too generous for that. "What
is right is right. He is a soldier Of
France" she muttered, while she kept
her vigil. He did not waken from the
painful, delirious, stupefied slumber
that had fallen on him. He only
vaguely felt that he was suffering pain;
he only. vaguely dreamed of what he
murmured-his past and the beauty of
the woman who had brought all the
memories Of that past back to him.
And this was Cigarettes reward-to
hear him mutter YEARLY of the proud
eyes and Of the lost smile Of another!,-
The dawn came at last. Her con.
slant care and the skill with which she
had cooled and dressed his wounds had
done him infinite service. The fever
had subsidized, and toward morning his
incoherent words ceased, his breathing
grew, calmer and more tranquil. He
fell asleep-sleep that was profound,
dreamless and refreshing.
She looked at him with a tempestu-
GUS shadow darkenipg her face that
yet was soft with tenderness that
she could not Danish. She hated him.
She ought to have stabbed or shot him
rather than have tended him thus. He
neglected her and only thought of the
woman of his old order. AS daughter
of the people, as child of the army, as
a soldier OF France, she ought to have
killed him rather than have caressed
his hair and soothed his pain.
Then gently, very gently, lest she
should waken him, she took her tunic
skirt with which she had covered him
from the chills of the night, put more
broken wood on the fading fire and
with a last lingering look at him where
he slept passed out from the tent as the
sun rose in a flushed and beautiful
dawn.
"He will never know" she said to
herself as she passed through the dis
ordered camp and in distant quarter
coiled herself among the hay of a for
age wagon and, covered up in dry grass
like bird in a nest, let her tired limbs
lie and her aching eyes close in repose.
She was very tired, and every now and
then as she slept a quick, sobbing
breath shook her as she slumbered like
a Wornout fawn that has been wound
ed while it played. ,,,.f.z...,xss.,- -