Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-07-27

Mr.. Je6eFapp ever atterward when
talking to his wife, and heard moth
ing about him till the very last day
Of the voyage.
It was horribly hot weather-quite
exhausting for ladies. Mrs. Jefferson
had been confined to her cabin for
some days with bad attack of fever
and headache. She looked pathetically
small and weak when she came on
deck again, and curled herself up in
my big deck chair which I had pre-
pared with cushions for her, giving
me at the same time a look so full of
gratitude that it was enough to make
any decent man feel ashamed OF him
SELF
The rest of the passengers began to
go below, card tables were put away,
the principal electric lights were put
out, but still Mrs. Jefferson sat in
the deck chair, looking small and weak
among the pillows, and I took it into
my head suddenly that she wanted to
say something to me, that speech
was difficult to her, and in a flash l
knew intuitively that she had learned
the silence which so many women
have to learn.
'sI want to thank you," she said at
last, "for all your goodness to me on
this voyage",Her voice was SO low
and gentle that had to lean forward
to catch exactly what she said, and
as did SO she laid her hand in mine.
Perhaps you don't know" she said
slowly, quite what your friendship
has been to me-
I stumbled and said something bald
and stupid in response, and Mrs. JEFF
ferson went on:
"For seven years I have lived for
| nothing but this visit home to Eng
land. When anything in my life was
a little disappointing, I always said
to myself, I have the children to go
back to- And every week had their
precious, foolish little letters, which
told me so little and kept me hunger
| ing to see them
| ''It must have been awful to leave
them again." said and in the dark
I took again the little hand which had
lain in mine.
"They were so fond of me-" said
Mrs. Jefferson, still in the same halt
| ing fashion, like one who speaks an
unfamiliar language. II mean when
they were little things. do not think
quite ting children could ever have
been more fond Of their mother. And"
she hesitated for moment, and
said, with SO much difficulty that it
seemed almost like cruelty to allow
her to proceed-'I always thought
they would remember me, although
they were so Attle'' She paused again,
and went on: "You mustn't think
that I was silly about them, or that
expected too much. L always thought
at first they might be little bit shy
Of me. But they didn't even know
me, and they were certainly disap-
pointed in me-. One of them was five
years old when I said goodby to her.
Now she is a schoolgirl Of thirteen.
Her only photograph Of me was taken
long ago, so it is no wonder that she
| didn't know me-"
| I did not fill in the pause by any
banal remark
'They have been brought up in a
very prim household" went on the
| SeHLle voice, IN WHICH love, rear, is
not thing that is reckoned with or
encouraged. They rather despised me
for laughing and crying over them
when we met, and-it is only natural,
Of course all their little condolences
were for the people who brought them
up, and all their ways of thinking are
their ways, and not mine One OF
my little girls, / found, is not very
truthful child, and the other, when l
asked her what she would like best
to do seemed more content at home
"But you made friends and got over
all that before you left?" said en-
couragingly.
IF had had a little more time"
said Mrs. Jefferson.
It would have been so much better
for her If she could have Wept. She
locked her thin hands together, and
said with a sort Of wall in her voice
-"If only had had little more
time!"
After a while she went on quite
quietly, and told me that her husband
had sent for her to return to him
and she had been obliged to leave the
children.