Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1910-04-28
IN THE REAR
APARTMENT

as the law permits, and our windows
are exactly on line. We had been
enjoying the privacy of having va
cant fiat before our windows for
months, when our seclusion was sud-
denly broken in upon. The windows
so near our own were thrown open
one day. Our neighbors had arrived.
We decided at once that they were
bride and bridegroom and that the old
colored servant had been in her fam
lily for generation. They were very
quiet neighbors, not in the least OBJ
trusive or noisy, and without ever
speaking to them, after the New York
fashion, we came to regard them with
quite neighborly spirit. The daily
routine of the brides apartment soon
became very familiar. We knew the
hours of their meals, their plans for
calls and callers If the bridegroom
were late in coming home or the
couple went away for a day we knew
it, and their doings supplied much of
our small gossip.
One summers night when the win
dows were thrown open on the air
shaft we were attracted by sudden
commotion. An elderly gentleman,
obviously a doctor, hurried in and we
saw group gathered anxiously about
the bed. What is left to fiat jewellers
of the spirit of neighborliness was
aroused. The little bride was very
Ill. The lights burned in her room
| throughout the night; nor did the
| doctor leave till daybreak. Out Of
| pure sympathy we slept little our
selves that night. Then followed a
long illness, which we watched with
| anxious attention. When the doc
tors visits changed from three visits
day to single call it was a source
of rejoicing for us all. And one bright
morning, weeks after, the little bride
appeared in her chair before the win
dow. Silently we all rejoiced in her
improvement. She looked very pretty
and very frail in her gayly colored
dressing gown, with its profusion of
pink ribbons. And each day the great
bouquet of flowers before her was re-
| newed.
A week passed and then one day
we missed the little bride from the
window. She had gone back to bed
and again the doctor came regularly
at at first, daily, but soon, to our con-
sternation, twice each day Later,
however, the calls became fewer and
once again the little bride took up her
place by the window But it was a
greatly changed little figure, which
went straight to our hearts. The gay
dressing gown was gone, as were the
/ pink ribbons, and the face looked
drawn and pale. Then the effort
proved beyond her strength and we
saw her no more.
But one night our attention was
attracted to the window again and
we watched fearfully with anxious
4 hearts. Two doctors and nurse
hastily summoned were beside the
bed The bridegroom sat at the foot
his head buried in his hands, without
moving. The doctors and the nurse
were obviously working with desper
ate haste. One, two, three hours
passed and then the lights were
turned down and the curtain, which
had been forgotten, was drawn. We
knew all, and throughout that night
the loss seemed to be our own The
next morning we saw the undertakers
enter the room with their hideous
tools.
And the pathetic little family has
not yet gone out of our life. The hus
band and the old colored maid still
live in the apartment. At first W.
marveled that he should stay OF
alone among so many memories, bu
we have decided that these memorie:
are all that he has left. He sits by
the windows alone in the early even
ing with the room darkened We fee
that we know him we'll and that he i.
bound to us by innumerable bonds o
sympathy. But we have never 81
much as learned his name.