The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1903-07-17
A Pardonable Deception.
BY LADY GILBERT.

| Two young married women were sitting
| by the fire i'll a dressing-room of an Eng
lish country house at the hour of o clock
in the morning. The elder had beauty
expressive of a strong, tender character.
The younger, ragfeatured, piquant
little creature with eyes full of curiosity,
| was speaking.
$50 you married Il poor man."
"a distinguished soldier
81 know; still
Exactly. will crafty you, FIR If l
do not tell you the truth YOU will invent
4 fiction"
The inquisitive one laughed and nod
dcd. She who was willing to lie COM
municative continues:
You know | was without family or
kindred, heiress of large income and n
beautiful old home. After my school
days attached myself to a good lady
who Travelled with me over a great deal
of the world, for felt unbearably soil
tary i'll this place, and had lively de-
sire to visit other countries and have the
experience of other lives besides my own.
After some years, my dear companion
having died, found myself here, alone
except for servants and the ncighbnrs
and acquaintance, who made me an OBJ.
jcct of their attentions
Il wonder you did not marry at once"
interrupted the inquirer.
MANY wondered; b"t partly because
my friend had warned me. perhaps too
urgently, against mercenary men, a
good deal because had not been edited
or attracted to any of the marriages
had seen, and l suppose" with a sudden
smile, because had not met with the
man who was happily my fate, shrank
from all suggestions OF the kind and held
on with both hands to my liberty.
After a season or two of pleasure in
both town and country | cravrd for
another change. Ungrateful for my ell
dowments | envied some others their
poverty, and at last resolved to taste an
NDSliShSS " iII(h IL lIlStl lONl-
dence had hardly ordained for me. al
lowed my friends to suppose that was
bent on further foreign wanderiuGs,
wound up my affairs in preparation for
Il long absence, committed my home
once more to the guardianship of my
trusted housekeeper, and departed this
society life.
Imagine me then in St. Thomas Hos
pta!, in cap and apron, studying hard to
fit myself for frst-class work as nurs-
ing sister.
"Oh, that was what you did, was III"
broke in the listener. How quiet you
kept it. My dear, wish l had seen you
in the cap; it must have been So becoming
to YOU
at was different from this" said the
narrator, touching the diamond star in
her hair, but liked it well. There was
no time to think about bccomingness;
was thoroughly sick of all that, and had
left it with my laccs and jewels at my
bankers. What | wanted was work
worth doing, an assurance that my sut-
fering fellow creatures were ever such 4
little BIZ the better for my existence"
The listener made little grimace and
smiled. You were always SO odd, deer"
she said, indulgcntly.
lust as finished my term and re-
ceived all my qualifications the war
broke out and / was soon i'll the thick of
it, tor | was of the very first band ct
nurses dispatched to the front
Il can't believe it. You were not
afraid of being shot, or blood poisoned,
or terrified into fts?"
81 just felt that was living in ear
nest"
Como to the point, however. Where
did you meet him."
II think the very first time saw him
WAS when he lay in the hospital he'd in
Pretoria covered with blood. You shrink
at this thought. l did not at the sight.
went to work to help the surgeon and
to make the patient as comfortable rs |
could after a cruel operation"
And he fell i'll love with you on the
spot?"
"TIc wasn't in a condition for any such
prompt proceeding. lie required all his
energies to wreStle with the fever through
which nurscd him. The first time
spoke to him about anything beyond his
medicine and nourishment and the case
of his pillows was after he had been some
time convalescent-one day when saw
particularly sad look on his brown
face and asked if could do anything for
him. perhaps write letter to his friends.
He thanked me and said he had no rcla-
tives, no one would be specially interested
in hearing about him, and thought it a
pity that somebody should not be glad
of his recovery us well rs of the dis
tinctions that awaited him.
$50 you began to be glad YOURSELF"
81 did my best to cheer him, and on the
long, hot summer evening while | was
| tanning him we had many a quiet con-
versation. He was much interested i'll
all the nurses, was always admiring their
skill and gentlcness, deploring their ia
tigues, which lie considered more to lie