The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1904-04-29
GO O Q O 0 co o D 0 0 90
3 Her Secret 3
O 0 @ @ O @ 90 O O O q q q

~ ~ - y - - CO q 9 % . .
flushed in an awful quiet was Ii
big house. for its mistress las sic
unto death Strange that she shoul,
be summoned when there were 9th
ers, sorrow marked and stricken il
years. who waited for the call an,
prayed It might come quickly, We
waited and prayed in VAIN, Their,
were others, too, not old or graz
before their time, who might hay,
slipped away into the unknown al
most unnoiiced. while this woman
had SO many ties To bind her To cartl
her husband, her child, her rela
tons, her legion of friends.
1t was hard She should be called
away SO early from the rich banquet
that lay spread before her.
Yet the angel OF death was cx-
pected. His emissarics had arrived
and told Of his approach, which may
not be stayed-nay, nor even long
DELAYED.
The doctor, who knew too well
the signs Of these fateful ENJOYS,
shook his head grayely in reply to
the anxious queries Of those who
loved her best-her sisters, her
mother. her husband but lie gave
no CLEAN Of hope. for She lay in a
deadly lcthargy from which il had
been impossible TO rouse her. In
vain her mother spoke to her as she
had done in days long gone by, when
she was yet a child. In vain her
husband stood by her side and took
her hand and called her by every
endearment she knew so we'll. In
vain her child clutched her breast
and cried for her mother to look at
her and tax to her again.
Surely if il were possible 10 bring
her back from the edge Of the grave
these dear ones could do it. But
there she lay. stonily impassiye, with
her great ewes staring into space,
cold and unheeding as the sphinx.
She gave no sign Of life, and the
hours fraught with hope sped slowly
on, and each one registered a step
nearer the grave.
One by one they withdrew from
the chamber of death, the husband |
being the last to obey the doctors |
and now none was left in the
room but the physician and the
nurse-her old servant, the one up
on whose knee she had climbed TWEEN
ty years and more ago.
How slowly the hours passed for
the watchers, and vet surely they
passed too quickly! just so many |
more vibrations of the pen
iulum, just a few strikings Of the
hour, and all would be over for her,
% richly endowed with all that
should make life worth living.
The doctor never left her side.
He sat there with his keen, observ-
ant eve fixed upon her, ready to note
any change, but there she lay i'm
passive, and the watcher could
scarcely see that she breathed.
Her beauty seemed even more per-
iect now than he had thought it.
Absolutely faultless was the CHS
cling Of those clear cut features.
Her dark hair waved loosely around
her Grecian brow and trailed across
ler shoulders, a fit setting for the
whiteness Of her face
The great violet eyes-her chief
ylory-were wide open, staring with
.errible fxity into notRingness, or
vas it into the something beyond
Her lips had lost their vivid color,
out this was scarcely a fault; her
hands were outside the coverlet,
White marble family marked with
1lue, her Wedding ring the one dis
,ordant note.
For long there had been no sound
n the room save the cracking of the
ire and the faint ticking of the
lock.
suddenly the doctor bent eagerly
Onward. Her lips moved. With
agerness he listened. "Linley," she
carcely more than whispered. Then
N was silence again.
The nurse rose hurriedly from her
hair by the fire. She had only
card a sound.
The doctor raised his hand, and
he resumed her seat. Long, long
e waited, hoping for another sound
( returning consciousness, but none
anne.
At last he came over to the nurse.
"Did you hear her? 2"
"What did she say, sir?"
zone word only-Linley.'"
The nurse suppressed an involun-
airy exclamation.
"What did it mean, nurse"
Rut tho mopoon only ebonk bor