The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-06-05


him-the machine, the priest-a clew
to the source, and so, perhaps, to some
thing like a cure, of his poor listeners
sorrows?
Il thought as you did once, Jane, as
all mourners have ever thought, that
to brood inactive over grave was less
bitter work than to let the grass grow
there naturally, and to come back to
the commonplace duties of a bereft
life. Don't think I mean to reach to
you. childr' for Jane turned her face
away impatiently at the first whisper
reminding her of Miss Lynch and of
admonition; II don't think it is in your
! power to feel differently to how you
feel 1 only tell you that l once
thought the same, felt the same utter
repubnance to the very thought OF
| consolation or forgetfulness, as you do
| now. and rallied from it, Jane; that is
he real reason that have been talking
/ to you so long. I recovered from the
! mortal stroke that laid low every hope
and interest possessed on earth. Will
| you let me tell you how?"
eff you please, sir. But remember
all constitutions are not equally strong.
| You strike me as being made of iron;
and IL am very weak" and she held
, I'D before him two little, warm hands,
| frail and transparent as porcelain.
! what would be blow to you would
! be lust death to me. 1 have no rally
| ing power, bodily or mental. Miss
| Lynch says so; Mr.. Huntley said so
when he saw his tonics weren't going
| to do me any good
"Huntley is a fool" exclaimed Mr..
J Follett, warmly. II beg your pardon.
| Jane; 1 mean Huntley talks about
! things of which he is most profoundly
i ignorant No rallying powers! What
does he know about rallying powers.
! the struggle of life against death-the
| greatest of all the mysteries that lie
hid in us-when he doesn't rightly un-
! derstand what spirit it is that moves
one muscle in this poor little hand of
| yours?"
He took her hand, and Jane long af-
/ terward remembered that his own
! trembled; then he dropped it suddenly,
and began-as one may return to the
| reading of a book-at the exact point
| in his own narration at which he had
| left off. 1 think he found that drawing
| any but an indirect parallel between
| his case and Miss Grand's led him into
! rather different roads to those he had
| laid down for himself when he quilted
| his vicarage gate an hour before!
"My wife's mother left my house,
Jane, and I kept up no further ac-
1uaintance with her or any person
connected with Margaret's family.
| One or two female relations of my own
| kindly proposed, when they heard of
| MY bereavement, to come and keep my
house for me, but l refused all their
offers. | should have shuddered to see
another face save hers at my table;
utter silence was better than to hear
the sound of any other voice than hers
in my study. Besides, what commun-
ity of interest could any alien life have
with mine? l had had one interest, one
happiness. one intense, passionate de-
light in living, and it was gone. All L
asked for Or desired was to be lett
alone, to hear. to see, to read nothing
reminding me of world beyond TINS
narrow one that hemmed i'll my own
existence and its misery.
Il am telling you of what happened
fifteen years ago-a year before came
to Chesterford. and first saw your little
face, child-yet every individual and
distinct torture, out of the crowd OF
torturas that made up my life then, is
IS vivid to me as though l had gone
through them not year ago.
For great many days after the
first blow fell on me l remained as one
sfupefied The long summer days, the
short, bright midsummer nights
dragged over me-one dreary night
mare of dull pain-and 1 gave no cry
to heaven for help.
Margaret had never loved me-Mar-
saret's lips had never given me one
kiss of true love; and she was dead,
and my child was dead, and l was
alone 1 realized each fact thoroughly,
and repeated them again, and again,
md again, as the brain involuntarily
Gultiplies one sickening image in bod
ly fever, but 1 felt nothing in the last
degree approaching to sorrow for my
self or for what l had lost.
This was the first natural stage, the
first stunned condition to which mind
and body are alike subject, you know,
after any very violent blow. 1t passed
away i'll an hour, in moment. as
servant asked me for some direction
about a common domestic matter in no
way bearing on my afiliction-it passed
| away, and 1 awoke to know. real and
passionate and despairing grief.
Ito be Continued) o..