Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-01-16


my poor child-so little more than a
child-it seems cruel to coma to you at
such a time; but life is very hard some
times"
st was very kind of you to come"
Isabel exclaimed, interrupting him; II
wanted to see you or some one like you;
for everything seems so dreadful to me.
l never thought that he would die"
She began to cry, in a weary, help
less way, not ike person moved by
some bitter grief; rather like a child that
finds itself in strange place, and is
frightened.
my poor child my poor childr'
Charles Raymond still held lsabel's
passive hand, and she felt tears drop
ping on it; the tears of a man, of all
others the last to give way to any senti-
mental weakness.
81 should be the last to mention Ro-
land Ransdelfs name in your hearing
Mr.. Raymond answered presently, when
she had grown a little quieter, IF the
events of the last day or two had not
broken down all barriers. The time is
very near at hand, Isabel, when no
name ever spoken upon this earth will
be an emptier sound than the name of
Roland Lansdeil."
She lifted her tear-stained face sud
denly and looked at him. All the clouds
fioated away, and dreadful light float
ed in upon her. She looked at him,
trembling from head to foot, with her
hands clasped convulsively about his
arm.
You came here to tell me something"
she gasped; something has happened
to him! All, if it has, life is all sor-
rowi"
He is dying, Isabel"
"Dyingv
Her lips shaped the words, and her
fixed eyes stared at Charles Raymond's
face with an awful look.
HE is dying 1t would be foolish to
deceive you with any false hope, when
in four and twenty hours time all will
be finished. He went out-riding-th
other night, and fell from his horse, as
it is supposed. He was found by some
haymakers early the next morning ly
ing helpless some miles from the Priory,
and was carried home. The medical
men give no hope of his recovery; but
he has been sensible at intervals ever
since. l have been l. great deal with
him-constantly with him; and his
Cousin Gwendoline is there. He wants
to see you, Isabel; of course he knows
nothing of your husbands death; did
not know of it myself till l came here
this morning. He wants to see you, my
poor child. Do you think you can
Gomez
She arose and bent her head slowly,
as if in assent, but the fixed look of hor-
ror never left her face. She moved to-
ward the door, and seemed as if she
wanted to go at Once-dressed as she
was, with the old faded shawl wrapped
| about her.
You'd better get your housekeeper
to make you comfortable and tidy while
l go and engage a fly" said Mr.. Ray
mond; and then looking her full in the
face, he added: Can you promise me
to be very calm and quiet when you see
him? You had better not come unless
you can promise me as much as that.
His hours are numbered, as it is; but
any violent emotion would be immediate
ly fatal. A mans last hours are very
precious to him, remember; the hours of
man who knows his end is near make
sacred mystical period in which the
world drops far away from him, and he
is in a kind of middle region between
this life and the next. | want you to
| recolect this, Isabel The man you are
| going to see is not the man you have
| known in the past. There would be very
| little hope for us after death if we found
no hallowing influence in its approach"
81 will recollect," Isabel answered
| She had shed no tears since she had
been told of Rolands danger. Perhaps
| this new and terrible shock had nerved
| her with an unnatural strength. And
| amid all the anguish comprehended in
| the thought of his death, it scarcely
seemed strange to her that Roland Lans-
| dell should be dying.
| There was the same solemn hush at
| Mordred PriOry that there had been in
| the surgeons house at Graybridge, only
| there seemed a deeper solemnity here
amid all the darkened splendor of the
spacious rooms, stretching far away, one
beyond another, like the chambers of q
palace, as Isabel saw the long vista not
as she had seen it once, when he came
| to the hall to bid her welcome, but with
the haunting, dream-like oppression
strong upon her. She saw little glim-
Ilerl0S pitches VI SllulHS ana color here
and there in the cool gloom of the shaded
rooms. and long bars of light shining
| through the venetian shutters upon the
polished oaken floors. One of the med-
ical men-there were three or four of
them in the house-eame out of the L.
brary and spoke in a whisper to Mr.
Raymond. The result of the whispering
seemed tolerably favorable, for the doe
tor went back to his companions in the
library, and Mr.. Raymond led Isabel
up the broad staircase, the beautiful
staircase which seemed to belong to
church or a cathedral rather than to any
cop;mop Aabitation.
They met a nurse in the corridor.
prim, pleasant-looking woman, who an
swered Mr.. Raymond's questions in
cheerful, business-like manner, as if a
Roland Lansdell or so more or less in
the world were a matter of very small
| consequence. And then mist came
before Isabers eyes, and she lost con-
seriousness of the ground on which she
trod; and presently there was a faint
odor of hartshorn and aromatic medi-
cines, and she felt a soft hand sponging
| her forehead with eau-de-cologne. and a
woman's muslin garments fluttering near
her. And then she raised her eyelids
with painful sense of their weight, and
voice very close TO her said
1T was very kind of you to come.
| am afraid the heat of the room makes
you faint. If you could contrive TO let
in little more air, Raymond 1t was
very good of you to come"
Oh. he was not dying, Her heart
seemed to leap out of a dreadful frozen
region intp an atmosphere of warmth
and light. He was not dyingi Death
was not like this.
oh, | am so glad to hear you speakw
she said; sit makes me so happv-to
see you like this. They told me that
you We're very, very i'll; they told me
that"
They told you the truth" Roland
answered, gravely. ooh. dear Mrs. Gil
bert. you must try and forget what |
have been, or you will never lie able TO
understand what l am. And was So
tired of life, and thought l had so little
interest in the universe; and yet | feel
so utterly changed creature now that