The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-06-12

IL amt as if l didn't know how she'd feel.n
murmured the gray-haired little woman mus;nGi,
as she patted her work into completion and turned
toward the Lady in Black you see 7 was nurse
70 l1e boy when 1t happened and for years after
Ward worked IN the family; so l know. saw the
illig from the beginning, from the very day
"hen the little boy here met with the accident"
accdent!D 1t was a sob of anguished sympa-
thy from Katheen's mother.
days" nv OioA i've '"o
q know lsnowl" choked the Lady in Black
9e' she was not thinking of the boy and the run
away.
Things stopped then for my mistress resumed
the little ay-halred woman after moment land
mat was the beginning of the end. She had a hus-
Dand and daughter, but they didn't count-not
either of them. Nothing counted but this little
grave out here; and she came and spent hours over
II, trimming it with flowers and talking to it."
he Lady in Black raised her head suddenly and
threw quick glance into the others face; but the
gray-halred woman's eyes were turned away, and
after moment she went speaking.
The house got gloomier and goomier but she
didn't seem to mind. She seemed to want it So
She shut out the sunshine and put away lots of the
pictures; and she wouldn't let the pianer be opened
at all She never sat anywhere in the house only in
the boys ROOM and there everything was just as
twas when he left it. She wouldn't let thing be
touched. | wondered afterward that she didn't see
l.
Leading -" The voice shook
Yes. | wondered she didn't see she was losin'
'em-that husband and daughter; but she didn't
see it"
The Lady in Black sat very still Even the birds
seemed to have stopped their singing Then the
gray-haired woman spoke:
SO. you see, that's why | come and put flowers
here-it's for her sake There's no one else now to
cale." she sighed, rising to her feet.
But you haven't told yet-what happened"
murmured the Lady in Black, family.
Il don't know myself-quite. / know the man
went away. He got something to do travelin' so
he wasn't home much. When he did come he looked
sick and bad. There we're stories that he want
quite straight always-but maybe that want true
Anyhow, he comes less and less, and he died away
but that was after she died. He's buried over
there, beside her and the boy The grl-well, no
body knows where the girl is. Girls like flowers and
sunshine and laughter, and young folks, you know.
and she didn't get any of them at home. So she
went-where she did get EN-, L suppose. Anyhow.
nobody knows just where she is now There,
and if haven't gone and tired you all out with my
chatter" broke off the little gray-haired woman,
contritely. "Tm sure | don't know why | got to
runnin' on sol"
mo, mo- was glad to hear it." faltered the
Lady in Black rising unsteadily to her feet. Her
face had grown white, and her eyes showed sud-
den fear. "But I must go now. Thank you" And
she turned and hurried away.
The house very still when the Lady in Black
reached home-and she shivered at the silence.
Through the hall and up the sairs she went hurried
ly, almost guilty. In her own room she plucked
at the shadowy veil with fingers that tore the fmy
mesh and found only the points of the pins She
crying nova choking little cry with broken
words running through it; and she still crying
all the while her hands fumbling at the fasten
ngs of her sombre black dress.
Long minutes later. the Lady-in Black no
longer-trailed slowly down the stairway. Her eyes
IL, l,,4
her lips were bravely curved in smile. She wore
a white dress and single white rose in her hair;
while behind her, in the little over the porch,
a tiny clock of fligree gilt licked loudly its
shelf at the foot of the bed.
There came the sound of running feet in the
hall below; then:
'Muver! Its muver come back" cried rap
turous voice And with little sobbing cry Bob
bys mother opened her arms to her son.-Eleanor
H. Porter in Harper's Bazaar.