The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1901-08-23
Continued from last week.
CHAPTER Y.
CHAPTER Y.
you ARE woMAN-A WOMAN LIKE
NE

S7&TN1 ments when gush of them
- will perform miracles which
nothing else can do. Being in them
selves the extreme of weakness. it is
nevertheless certain that they often
impart unexpected strength.
Erna Thomas had no intention OF
crying when she FASTENED 10 the bed
side of Lisle Maxwell. There existed
no logical reason why she should cry
unless TO shed a few sympathetic tears
after the manner OF women generally.
There was every reason why she should
not do so. She was not constituted
after the manner OF women general
ly' In any sense Of the word, for she
was typical western girl, who, bereft
OF her mother in her infancy, had ruled
her father and his household with a
rod of iron ever since her birth But
she was superlatively feminine in all
things, deliciously feminine in most OF
them. strikingly so in the fact that no.
body could tell herself least of all,
what she would do next. Frank, gen.
erous, open hearted. impulsive and
headstrong, her rod of iron was incased
in velvet, and her most imperious COM
mands purred themselves into favors
bestowed.
She was fond Of excitement and mas
terry. What woman is not? She was
conscious that for the first time in her
life she was part and parcel with a rO-
nance and that she stood upon the
very verge of precipice that overlook
ed a mystery of the most remarkable
kind. Her heart bled for the girl up
on the bed whose father, yesterday a
strong and vigorous man, was now a
corpse. and she was dismayed 10y the
magnitude of the task that confronted
her. Think what she had to do The
measure Of consolation which it was
her duty to administer TO the orphan
paled into insigniicance in the pres
ence of the revelation for which fate
had destined her TO be the medium.
The young girl whose form was stretch
ed upon heIAbed believed that she was
a man; had been taught to despise all
women; had been educated 10 regard
them as inferior creatures. She must
be told and at once, that she belonged
to that despised class, and the knowl-
edge promised to impart a sorrow as
poignant as had that other event which
had left her fatherless.
1t was possible that the disappoint-
ment and dismay occasioned by the
revelation might neutralize the agony
occasioned by the death Of her father;
il was possible that it might augment
her grief; no one could foresee the con-
sequences to her of this unprecedented
chain of events; but whatever those
consequences might be they must be
met, and the only human being in all
the world who by reason of the sudden
knowledge thrust upon her was compe-
tent to meet them was a young girl,
just past 49, whose understanding of
the questions with which she had to
cope was limited to the experiences Of
q maiden whose entire life had been
surrounded by every safeguard that
doting father could marshal to his aid
when circumstances had compelled
him to rear and TO bring to maturity
motherless daughter. Erna's inno-
cence and ignorance, however, render
ed her strong for the task. She took
up the burden all the more readily be-
cause she did not realize what it in
volved. Her innocence was as COM
plete as Isles. her ignorance as pro-
found. Solitary speculation had car
ried the latter into regions which Erna
had never regarded as worthy Of eX-
ploration She had lived all her life in
such near proximity TO the mysteries
of creation that she had been uncon-
scious Of their existence. Lisle had
been isolated so far away from them
that when the knowledge came to her
that they did exist she had striven
with all her soul, gropingly, in the
dark, but certainly in search Of light,
and the two girls stood upon equal
ground, half way to the goal to be at
tanned, but widely separated by their
tourneyings, like two who, having
started at the same point, but in oppo-
site directions, to meet again at the
other side of the world, pause when
only half the journey is made, neither
one wiser than the other. one had
searched through the darkness toward
the light eagerly; the other had wan
dered with the light without being
aware that the night dwelt anywhere
upon the earth, until across that in
finite space which separated her from
the other that still voice called to her
for aid.
Therefore when Erna, having put
her father from the room, turned and
beheld Isles eyes fixed upon her, she
FASTENED to the bedside, dropped upon
her knees and did the very thing that
she was resolved not to do-burst into
tears; and while she cried she put out
her arms and wound them around
isles neck, laid one of her cheeks
Against the cool, white face Of the
orphan and so compelled the one who
should have received consolation to
administer It
1t was in a crisis like this where