The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-05
IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND
By EUGENE UHLRIcH >

away to bed. she still remembered the con-
sideration in his tone.
The next evening when she went out on the
veranda Robert Macdonald again happened up
the walk and again he stopped beside her.
But she was now more in the mood for chat
Very soon they found that he knew friendf
in her home town and were friends by proxy.
/ When Mary grew still better, Miss Plymp-
ton and Robert rentured on little walks.
| When the invalid was sitting up, Robert took
her nurse driving. The days were passing
very pleasantly for Miss Plympton, SO pleas
antly that she seemed to have forgotten her
hobby. Perhaps she dreaded to introduce into
these peaceful tete-a-tetes the discussion
which an exposition OF her theories always
seemed fated to arouse. Indeed she seemed
I almost fearful OF glancing at Roberts palms
and loath to read the story they might tell.
| When he came to her one evening holding
out his hand with an exaggerated air OF at
fiction, she saw that her. duty could no
longer be evaded.
Il have. a case for you, Miss Plympton.
| Just see how my finger is swollen. I~cut IL
| yesterday morning on the edge Of sheet
of paper.
"You have infected it, It needs to be laid
| open and drained" In a moment she was
| busy getting together gauze, water and
scalpel When she was through and had put
the last touches on the neat bandage., he no.
| ticed that she was silent and pale. He
| thought it was because she minded the bit
of blood.
81 ought to have gone down to DR.. Buck
ley" he said apologetically, land not asked
you to bother over this when you were tired
out" s-s..a - -7.<zE ~ 5e;z
| She shook her head smiIingIy.
| Just the same, when she reached her own
room she threw herself down on, the bed
1 and cried and cried She was learning how
much she cared for Robert, learning 1t when
she must never think of him again. Was
it not all there in the lines Of his Well-kept
| hand-insanity and violent death? It was
kind of the gods to forewarn her, but just
at first the kindness seemed hard.
| The, next evening she did not go out on
| the, veranda, and so for many evenings.
When Robert urged her to come for walk.
she said she was too tired. Instead she fell
! into the habit of taking lonely little walks
| in the morning, just for exercise.
She went down to the drugstore one day
to fill a prescription for Mary. In cage
| in one corner was monkey whose only di-
version seemed to be the teasing of frolic-
some fox terrier. The monkey would stretch
out hand and pull the terriers ear, then
scramble up and listen to the dogs snappy
impish face.
4 From force of habit Miss Plympton
watched his little yellowish pink palm. It
| was perfect hand. The heart line, the head
line the mounts, had the stamp of an ad-
mirable hand. That monkey, according to
her science, should live long, marry hap
PLY and have all the catalogue of virtues.
Miss Plympton watched in fascinated hor-
ror. Then the light Of a great relief over
spread her face. Finally she laughed long
and heartily, but the druggist was surprised
to detect a touch of hysteria In her laugh.
The life Of a nurse is hard on the nerves,
he reflected. T.
That evening Miss Plympton came down
on the veranda, and Robert was delighted
to find that the hauteur Of the last days had
t melted as If by magic. They talked long and
, late. and the moonlight disclosed happiness
in two faces.
, Robert Macdonald never understood his
wife's fancy for the drugstore monkey. When
it died shortly, the druggist declared thai
] she had killed 1t with Sweets but Mrs. Mac
donald only saw in the beasts death the last
i providen1ial argument against her palmistis
t alterations.