The Topeka state journal., 1903-06-06

dowments I envIed some others their
poverty, and at last resolved to taste
an experience which 1t seemed that
providence had hardly ordained for me-
1 allowed my friends TO suppose that
I was bent on further foreign wander
ings, wound I'D my affairs in prepara-
tion for 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
pItal in cap and apron. studying hard
to fit myself for first class work as a
nursing sister,
-.Oh, that was what you did, was it2'
broke in the listener. How quiet you
kept it, My dear, 1 wish 1 had seen
you in the cap: it must have been so
becoming to YOU
1t was different from this" said the
narrator, touching the diamond star in
her hair. but / liked it we'll There
was no time to think about becoming
ness; 1 was thoroughly sick Of all that,
and had left it with my laces and jew
els at my bankers. What / wanted was
work worth doing. an assurance that
my suffering fellow creatures were ever
such little bit the better for my ex-
istence-"
The listener made a little grimace and
smiled You were always so odd,
dear" she said indulgently.
Just as I finished my term and re-
ceived all my qualifications the war
broke out and I was soon in the thick
of it. for 1 was of the very first band
of nurses dispatched to the front.
4 can't believe it. You were not
afraid of being shot. or blood poisoned,
or terrified into fits?"
Il just felt that I was living in earn
Come to the point. however. Where
did you meet him2'
I think the very first time saw him
was when he lay in the hospital bed in
Pretoria covered with blood. You
I shrink q the fho71cr1T did n a Ia
sight. I went to work to help the sur
geon and to make the patient as COM
Portable as ! could after a cruel opera
"And he fell in love with you on the
spot?'
he wasn't in condition for any
such prompt proceeding He required
all his energies to wrestle with the
fever through which 7 nursed him. The
first time 1 spoke to him about any
thing beyond his medicine and nOur-
ishment and the ease of his pillows was
after he had been some time GONZALES
cent-one day when I saw a partiCu-
larly sad look on his brown face anc
asked him if I could do anything for
him. perhaps write a letter to his
friends. r. thanked me and said he
had no relatives no one would he spe-
cialy interested in hearing about him.
and I thought it a pity that somebody
well as of the distinctions that awaited
him"
so YOU began to be glad yourself?"
Il dld my best TO cheer him. and on
the long hot summer evenings while [
was tanning him we had many quiet
conversation He was much Interested
in all the nurses, was always admiring
their skill and gentleness, deploring
their fatigues. which ne considered more
to be Ditied than the sunerings of their
patients"
And you were jealous 2's
No. | thought Of him only as a sick
.ttlra-
amuse him with whatever discourse he
might fancy. One day he gave me his
ideas about the nursing vocation. which
included the opinion that ladies with
home. money and position ought not to
forsake their more immediate duties for
the hospital but that the career of the
care of the sick should be left open to
those women who needed an occupation
and the means Of obtaining a livelihood.
] thought it for a moment a prosaic and
+ disappointing theory but on reflection
4 7 admitted that it was a kindly one with
regard to the less favored by fortune Of
our sex I felt from that moment how
ever that if he knew my little history
should be under his disapproval. and
allowed him to rank me among the mer-
cenaries to whom he had given his sym
/ pathy"
so you already felt
THAT he was going to love me if did
not take pains to disenChant him: and
partly because he was a sick and lonely
/ man. partly for some other reason that
7 could not quite understand, I felt no
inclination to do any such thing
knew he was a poor soldier and that he
thought 7 was a poor nurse, and i
thought if this man is going to love me-
why. / shall not allow the dross OF the
world. which is. unfortunately mine, to
hinder him. I kept my dreadful secret,
and long before he was fit to leave the
hospital he had asked me to be his wife
/ and I had accepted him"
.sYol1-x7ou didn't mind AT all about his