The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-27
Her Hour Of TRANSPORTATION


Margaret Hungerford stood under the
shadow of a gallery in St. Matthew )
Stlurch and watched the man to whom
enc had been engaged six months be-
AOre come down the aisle with the wo-
arm.
A year ago she had joyously invested
thls man with qualities whose noble
ness existed only in the intensity of
nef own ideals He had rewarded her
py losing his head under the fiattery
OF a pair of shallow blue eyes.
Margaret had stood aloof, almost as
an outsider, and watched the thing
from its very beginning. Watched it
with a SLOW death within herself which
was as the hard departure of youth.
Never by the lifting of a hand did
she seek to stay what she saw. Then
came the day when Darrell asked to be
released
She realized with a quick glance into
the future, that here was an experience
which time might not gloss over. It
le1t her woman of clear vision, with
no Vestige of the inconsequent glamour
of girIhood.
Yet. as she walked from the church,
when the bridal party had dispersed, a
deep thankfulness filled her heart. Her
lie was yet her own. The bitterness
she had felt was more for the rude
tearing away of the sheltering visions
OF girlhood than for any deeper hurt.
Now, she said, and threw back
her strong shoulders while she descend
ed the church steps as though she
would thus throw off forever this phase
OF her life, now work"
And work it was for three years, as day
by day. in her nurses dress, she trod
the ward of a hospital. It was also
what the pruning of a careful gardener
Is to a vine.
Under it Margaret's somewhat angu-
lar figure grew into a graciOusness Of
womanhood seldom seen: Then she
met Paul Gerhardt, and life blOssomed
for her with resplendence of joy
which at times held her dumb.
She stood one evening by the bed
IN private room looking down upon
the woman who lay there. The patient
had just been brought from the Operat-
ing room and given into Margarets
care.
on the wilderness of the pillow the
fair damp strands of hair showed
strangely familiar in spite of the wasted
features beneath Margaret waited
with locked hands for the heavy eye
lids TO lift themselves. Then she look
ed up suddenly and saw Darrell in the
doorway, and knew.
His anxiety for his wife if such it
could be called, was swallowed up in
his amazement at Margaret. That the
former was perfunctory the nurse saw
at a glance.
when the effect of the ether had passed
there burned a fearful eagerness.
Even the surprise of finding herself in
the care of the woman she believed she
had Wronged was immersed in it.
Margaret saw that what little
strength her patient had was dissipat-
ed in the effort to drag one word of
real concern from her husband, and
followed Darrel from the room.
DarrelS eyes narrowed to pin points
as he watched her. Suddenly he caught
a fold of her apron, crushing its fine
Wilderness in his hand.
Margaret" his voice was husky,
See nOw-What a mistake
She looked at him duly with knitting
brows. 1t was hard at a bound to bring
her mind to this. Then, as she would
have avoided unnecessary contagiOn, she
drew her apron from his grasp.
"Mistake?" Her eyes pierced the
shifting ones and held them. Mis-
takel You did but one wise thing in
all your weak vacillating life, as far as
I know. and it was when you married
Eleanorl"
His eyes writhed under hers. but she
would not release them.
Why she went one, ''she loves you,
in spite of the fact that she knows you
, IS you are. To me it seems incredible;
it is incredible. She must be nearer the
divine than we are"
Her look went beyond him to the
door of the sick room, and he breathed
more freely. Now it came back.
IF I thanked God then" she said,
slowly, when I know what he had
saved me from, how do you suppose I
thank him now when I know what he
has saved me from? Within month I
am to be the wife of Paul Gerhardt''
The great oculist's name was familiar
enough to Darrell. 1t was a pity that
Gerhardt himself. bending at that mo-
ment over a pair of sightless eyes,
could not have lifted his head and look
ed into those Of the woman he loved.
The man who did look into them Won