Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-09-01

with you, Harry think you might 20
long way and not find better wife
than she would make"
Aunt"
On, you need not look so surprised.
L know that you used to breakfast at the
cottage most mornings. and that Won
have not been lately l know is because
YOU did not care about leaving me. Very
thoughtful of you, Harry. and | quite
appreciate it. But now that am nearly
out OF the doctors hands, there is no
reason why you should not resume your
old habits, Now you know my thoughts,
you need not pretend any longer that it
Is only the major You 90 to see" and the
Kind old lady smiled on her nephew and
patted his hand.
Ella, sitting white-faced and silent in
her chair, drank in every word-every
look
ms morning, when she awoke. the
chances of her becoming mistress of
Qmnton were fifty in a hundred; non she
fet they were sinking fast. Harry
Charlton was weak. At present his pas
SION for herself was strong enough to
resist any outward pressure, but in
little while his liking for pretty Nelly
lie Prun, enforced by his aunt's desire to
see him married, might gain the upper
band. Something she had read came into
her mind. Love may last for ever. but
passion is like gorgeous flower that
withers in the sun and soon fades and
dies. To her Harry Charlton looked
ridiculous as he sat beside his aunt's bed,
not daring to look at her. A few more
visits to the cottage, little more urg-
ing on the part of Lady Hammersly, and
he might yield. Her nerves were over
strung, and she felt so terribly restless
that at length she stole unobserved from
the room and wandered about the park
for an hour or more, unobservant of
everything, thinking-always thinking
of one thing-that Quinton was slipping
from her grasp.
However, she never looked more charm
ing or seemed in better spirits than when
she sat down to dinner with Harry
Charlton, and walked up and down the
lawn afterwards whilst he smoked his
cigar
1t gave her small relief that he laughed
at his aunt's projects for his marriage
She had Iathomed his facile nature. and
which she held him.
1t was only by the greatest effort of
will that she forced herself to be her
outward self, and listen with downcast
eyes to his tender speeches, and, when
they wandered to the bowling green, to
let him caress her with his arm around
her waist
1t was an intense relief when the time
came for her to take her place in the
sick room, and yet she fingered in her
own room whilst she partially disrobed
herself and put on her dressing gown and
arranged her hair for the night
When she descended she found Lady
Hammersly in light sleep, so, dismiss
ing the maid who had been in attend
ance, she seated herself in the big arm
chair beside the table on which burned
the shaded night lamp
1t was large room. The window was
opposite the door, the old fashioned tes-
ter bed, with dropping curtains which
sheltered the pillows from any draught
half looped back, to the left of the door.
whilst to the right was the fireplace, in
which a few embers smouldered. There
was an arm chair for the night watcher
and a table on which stood the medicine
bottles, together with a spirit lamp and
a jar of cold broth, ready to be heated
at any time that the patient felt inclined
for food.
Ella sat down and placed Il book she
had brought with her on the table
The girl felt strangely chilled, although
but half an hour before she had been pac-
ing the lawn even without a hat; and
bending forward, stretched her hands out
over the smouldering fire till warmth re-
turned to them. But again, quarter of
an hour later, the same chill feeling
crept over her, and again she was glad
to warm her hands at the fire. 1t was
simply nervousness. She told herself so.
If she could only lift the lamp shade and
light the candles she would feel better;
but the gloom and the silence. only
broken by the faint breathing of the
sleeper, was dreadfully depressing, and
she would have given good deal if she
had somebody to talk to, even if in
whispers. There was the bright circle of
light falling on the table. glittering on the
spirit lamp and scintiiating from the
glass bottles. whilst beyond all was in
faint shadow, thickening into dusky
blaCkueSS IN the corners.
Ella took up her book ana made de
termined effort to read-anything to es-
cape from her own thoughts; but when
the timepiece on the mantel shelf softly
struck the hour she found that the book
was on the floor and that she was
dreaming of what had been and what
might be, whilst the fire was all but out.
With as little noise as possible she re-
plenished it, but, slight as the noise was,
it sufTiced to awaken the sick woman.
who turned restlessly on her pillow, and
then, sitting up, called ENORMOUSLY to
Ella to know what the hour was.
The girl approached the bed and
smoothed down the pillows.
Ten minutes after -. dear Lady
Hammersly,' she replied. viii you
take your broth now!"
Il do not mind if / do" her ladyship
replied rather pettishly. Il feel faint.
7 'bovn had an UNPLEASANT dream-a