Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-03-31

not know she is quite an invalid? Yes.
She is living with her brother in Cham
pion. 1t is doubtful if she survives the
winter. The winters in Champion are
horrible. | spent one there and it
nearly killed me-"
"Ah, we are thankful it was only
one winter. How could we have spared
you here in New York;" was the gal
liant reply.
Aunt Royal smiled at the compli-
ment, and the gay company, its ele-
gance, its flowers, it's perfume, it's hap
by careleSSneSs Of the worlds woe, al
most shut out the picture Of that ago
nizing figure that kneeled one night over
there close by that beautiful woman at
the piano and begged for But strike
up the music faster, faster; let us eat,
drink and be merry, for tomorrow we
die.
The musicians at Aunt Royals had
begun the soft. dreamy waltzos just as
Stuart and Rhena came into the library
of the Duncan house at Champion.
They had been sent for in haste by the
nurse, who had noted a serious change
in Louise as the evening drew on. They
went at once into the bedroom.
1t did not need the doctors presence
already there. nor the stern look on his
face, to tell them that the end was
near. Louise was partly raised on pill
lows, and her eye glowed with the fe-
yer of madness that had all along been
consuming her.
Come she cried peevishly. eve
shall be late. Don't you hear the clock
striking?' 1t made every one in the
room start to hear the great clock in
the hall just at that moment strike II.
"Come. give me my gloves and fan,
and tell Jem to drive around at once.
BE careful Of my dress! Do | look
right? The dances will he started We
shall miss the first. How slow you
are. | wanted lilies of the valley, and
you sent up the freisias. | don't think
they are a bit pretty. Doctor, YOU said
not to leave off my cloak when | went
! out to the carriage. 1t seems cold.
| What is the matter? Hank. | hear the
music! Why don't they play faster?
1t is not fast enough
She stopped talking. and her eyes
opened wider. She seemed to see what
the rest did not. Then she cried in a
terrible voice: Aunt Royal Hal!
am going mad! | am mad! Doctor,
! doctor, save me!'
She fell back, and the doctor Shud-
dered and for second buried his face
in his hands. Stuart never saw him do
that before. When he lifted his head,
no one asked what the end would be,
for it had already come. She had died.
as the doctor had really supposed she
would, suddenly and painlessly. Her
life had gone out like a candle flame in
a winter night, when the great door of
the mansion is swiftly opened and the
belated owner Of the house is met by
the servant in the hall.
"Tell the musicians to play a little
faster" said Aunt Royal few minutes
later, and they did so.
When morning began to come in gray
and cold. Stuart was standing by the
window Of the bedroom as he haG
stood about a year before when his
father died. Louise lay there, now
that the life had gone, her face almost
as beautiful as when Stuart saw her or
his return from Europe. The jewels
were still about her neck and the brace
lets on her wrists, while the freisias O.
which she had complained lay across
her bosom.
Stuart was looking out of the win
dow. A crowd of miners had come
down the road and was standing silent
ly in front of the mansion. He saw
them there, and even in his grief b,
respected their purpose in coming thu
early to show their sympathy befor
they went on down to their days work
He went out to the hall.
"Tell the men to come up. 1 shall b
glad to thank Them" he said to a serv
ant.
Rhena came in. "God has given yo1
to me-" he said, "else this would b
more than | could bear" and he stoo,
thus with his arm about her, and tn
tears of his humanity fell fast ct tn
, sight of that pale clay on the bed.
Then he turned toward the hall wit
his wife.
"God is merciful," she said HE ha
\ given us something to live for. W
: will spend our all in doing his will"
o YES" replied Stuart, ''humanit!
y after all, is worth saving. 1t is wort
\ living for. We are our brothers keel
ers. There is nothing better in all tn
world than the love Of God for his Chi
o dren, and the love of his children fC
4 one another" And with the words b
- went out and shut the door upon tn
y dead and its past, and with the wOma
of his love by his side faced the Twin
, and its future.