The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-06-16

bit by bit she pieccd together the his
tory of his boyhoOd. She saw the
businesslike. uncompromiSing attitude
of the uncle to whom the boy had
been left as a legacy by his dying
mother. The wealthy bachelor had
given freely of his money, but not Of
his sympathy. He lad made no effort
to understand the boy-to establish in
innate relations with him. If teachers
and tutors had said that the boy was
lazy or indifferent he had accepted the
criticism without question. She was
morally certain he had never looked
into those luminous brown eyes and
read the truth.
On the fifth day after he arrived at
the hospital she received letter:
Dear Madam-AIr Grimm has re-
ccived word that his nephew, John
Stanton, is ccatined to your hospital
with typhoid fever. He requests that
you spare no expense to make him
comfortable and to bring about his III
innate recovery. Kindly render a
weekly statement to Mr.. Grimm and
notify him If we can ship anything
that will make John more comfortable
or that will expedite his recovery"
The signature was the name of Mr..
Grimm's secretary.
Miss Kent laid down the letter and
frowned at an engraving of Esculapius
which hung over her desk. She could
see the man of business in his richly,
appointed office turning from his tele-
phone long enough to give the secre-
tary some curt directions. She could
also see-and the memory of that sight
brought a queer &loking sensation in
her throat-Jack Stanton's eager face
each day when the mail was being dis
tributed.
ANY line from the governors?
Marion Kent gave the mail to an
other nurse to distribute, and then she
sat down to her desk. 1t took her
long time TO frame the letter she had
decided to write She wrote it in lead
pencil, erasinS and interlining, and then
copied 1t. She set the stamp upon the
envelope with triumphant uplifting Of
her head. Something told her that this
letter would make Henry Grimm, bach
elor, think.
1t did. When he had read it the first
time he showed back his chair from his
rich mahogany desk and stared through
the window where the joyous spring
sunlight was dancing on the roofs Of
skyscrapers. 1t seemed as if Il sudden
new light had flooded the eyrie in
which Henry Grimm had been content
at the game of making money and
more money. He read the letter again.
Then he laid it down and leaned back
in his chair 1t was womanly letter,
but it carried certain force of char
acter in every gentle phrase. And aft
err reading it the third time Henry
Grimm wrote to his nephew. He did
not even dictate the letter to his sec
rotary. but wrote 1t long hand. Oddly
enough, at the same hour the very next
morning he found himself AT the same
desk. The answers to these letters
came in her handwriting, but they bub-
bled over with boyish expressions of
the patient to whom the mail hour was
now the happiest of the day.
There were only daily reports from
Miss Kent setting forth the tritling va
riations of temperature and rcSpiru-
tions Young Stanton was wandering
In the land of delirium.
1t was only natural that Miss Kent
should write few words of comfort
| to the now anxious man and equally
natural that he should watch for those
| daily crumbs of comfort, but his secre-
tary was amazed when the man of af-
| fairs suddenly announced that he was
| going south. Miss Kent had written
that they expected the crisis in forty
eight hours.
Mr. Grimm leaned back in the chair
of the parlor car and closed his eyes.
"Of course he will get well. He's been
| keeping up this gait ever since his first
| degree of measles. 1t is foolish Of me
! to chase down there" Then he added
quite inconsequently, "I'll wager she's
forty-five and wears corkscrew curls."
|
Young Stanton had been carried out
on the convalescents' porch. He was
waiting for his uncle. who had gone
down to White Sulphur Springs for a
weeks stay. Il say, governor" he said
when Mr.. Grimm had finished his ac-
count of his trip, don't you think we
could fix it SO that Miss Kent could
have little vacation? She looks aw-
fully tired 1 think we could fix it on
the score that l need her to take care
Of me on the trip"
Henry Grimm looked up at the
mountains. They were calm and stead
fast, like Marion Kent He rose sud-
denly.
YES l will ask her now. think
need her myself"