Middletown transcript., 1902-12-06

A441s ~ <&st}c9 k&S size H1tAEA
up letter by bis plate one morning,
another letter from Heien2 If YOU
answer alI abe writes, / shouldn't think
yon would hare time for much else !,
and Robert wrote to Helen that she lad
better in future direct to Ills afiice
postmen were sometimes little careless.
But Helen understood. She was ten
years older than Robert; she had given
the best of her own young years to
this orphan brother; she had put aside
the love OF her life that she might, by
her teaching, help him to the education
he desired. And now, someway, she
was little tired; her work seemed done.
che longed for quiet corner, she felt
hungry for the nearness Of this, her
one earth tie; but Roberts happiness
was more than her own, and she took
up her work patiently again.
In time another guest came into the
home. "I'm sorry, Lillian said weakly
as Robert bent over her and the other.
the tiny head, that it isn't boy. They
say that sometimes men love daughter
better than their wife; 1t would break
my heart if you should love the baby
best. Promise me that you never wili?',
"Wbat foolish question, Lillian, >
he answered; ''of course never wiIl.''
When 1t came to naming the baby
he had his way. "There never can be
but one Lillian to me, SO Helen it shall
be, /" and be wrote "Aunt Helen" won
derful stories Of the beauty and bright
ness OF Baby Nellie.
After little be began to catch note,
a something, between the lines in Helen's
letters that vaguely troubled him, and
one day there came letter Ia hand
SO changed he hardly knew it; she was
sick, would he come to herr
Lillian was in her. room with cold
and slight fever when he carried the
letter to her. Surely you are not going
and leave me here sick" she exclaimed.
How can you be so cruel? If Helen
were very badly off she could not have
written herself. Well, If you will 90,
only wait till morning; half day won't
make any difference to her"
Robert hesitated, he felt impelled to
90 at once; but if be crossed Lillian.
it might make her 20 much worse that
he could not 60 at all. In the morning,
as he was stepped on the train, telegram
was handed him Helen is dying
"You are too late'-he felt the re
buking accent in the nurses tone-'sand
she was 50 anxious to see you.n
Lillian wrote him letter full Of love
and sympathy; she said to everyone,
Dear Helen. how sad it is.'' AT the
same time down in her heart there
was little feeling that she never put
into words or even concrete thought
now he is wholly mine.
But not entirely hers; there was the
little Helen. And as she child grew
beyond the years when she could be
conveniently pu. to sleep or sent to the
nursery, loving, lovable, always ready
to spring into her fathers arms, the
bbaneffuii root ia fiiiittians heart TOOK q
fresh start. Every caress be gave to
Nellie she felt herself defrauded Of, every
fond word a robbing Of her right; to
herself she said she could not bear it.
that her own child should come between
them, and at times she almost hated the
child for it.
Nellie was too young to understand
this; she only felt her mothers lack
Of love and turned the more to the
father. But Robert was mot 50 blind, |
and when he saw that she was made
to suffer for too open fondness on his |
part, he grew cautious, caution for
her sake that Nellie often mistook for
indifference. and grieyed over in her
loving little heart.
One day there was white crane On
the door, and white casket was carried |
out OF their home. Lillian was shocked:
she had not thought the child even
seriously sick; indeed she had dragged
Robert from her bedside to whist club. |
and the last conscious hours that Nellie
knew was that in which she cried herself
to sleep for "Papa. ="
Lillian shed many tears, she felt the
keen stress Of grief; but yet deep down.
far deeper than at Helen's death, Law
the thought that she would hardly have
owned to herself, but was none the less
apparent, that now, for the first time,
Robert was hers alone, no longer was
there right or claim beside.
And yet, impalpable 80 the thinnest
breath Of vapor, not to be grasped or
defined, but none the less present and
felt, was the shadowy something that
seemed to have come between her and
Robert In the hour when she could
claim him as hers, and hers only. AT
first she recognized this with an incred-
ulous petulance that in turn gave place
to vague alarm. Not that he was less
tenderly kind or attentive--the more 50
II any thing; but be went her way as If
no longer touched by her moods; fre-
quently he said he had writing to do,
and shut himself in the little room that
had been Nellie's play-room, now made
into . "den," it almost seemed; but
then it could not be that he was living
d life OF his own apart from her.
AT last one evening petulance and
alarm famed into speech, and as he
was leaving the room on the plea Of
writing little WHILE" she threw her.
self before him. Robert, z she cried,
holding him fast, "what is ii? What
has come between us SO? What are you
doing?''
Il am writing on the book you have
often heard me speak Of answering
the last of her questions.
'.But | don't want you to write thai
book; hate It, the tears beginning
to gather. You are so changed to he,
and now for that to cosne In. You have
never been the same since Nellie died;