St. Tammany farmer., 1910-05-07
Proving the Answer
By CLAUDINE SISSON

aged, growing old She was just a
girl. Why should she have cared for
him? She certainly could not have
cared for him!
There was a tragedy in his face as
he turned about, and Eunice saw it.
What is it, Ellsworth" she had
asked. fearfully.
He had taken her by the shoulders
and looked deep into her eyes and
then turned away, the question un-
spoken. Strangely enough, feeling as
sured as he did that she had done so,
he still felt he could not insult her by
asking her to put in words the bald
fact that she had married him for his
money. He found her surveying him
thoughtfully, quietly, after that. and
she did not laugh so much. She seemed
always to be slipping out of sight. un-
obtrusive when he was about.
Things had changed in the Ferry
household in the two years since
their marriage; the old light hearted
ness had gone and the mistress Of the
big place was paler and quieter,
though still smiling, while the man
who owned the pile of granite and
marble was sterner, more absorbed in
his business, always courteous, but
much to himself. The lover into which
Ellsworth Ferry had bloomed so sud-
denly, so completely, had vanished,
forever, he told himself, grimly.
Nearly every disaster has its re-
deeming lights. When his automobile
chose to blow up while Ellsworth
Ferry was travelling at a reckless
speed to see some new properties and
he was picked up as dead at first, it
seemed a solution of all his problems
and worries.
But he was not dead, and when he
began dimly to float back to earth
he noticed someone beside his hospi-
tai bed. Always when he opened his
eyes she was there. He did not try
to think who she was. She never
stirred except at times to move the
fan above him or to lay cool hand
on his hot head. He grew to expect
to see her there and the vision never
failed him. -...
On one of the days when he kept re-
ceding from everything on horrible
waves of suffocation he heard her cry
out once low. despairing cry, cry
wrenched from the depths. Someone
had at once taken the despairing
voice and carried it away, though he
tried to come back and stop them.
Then when again he opened his eyes,
sanely, he saw her there back in the
same chair. 1t was Eunice, he OBJ
served, quite without emotion. There
did not seem to be any emotion with
in him any more than there was
strength.
But the days crept on and slowly
Ellsworth Ferry came back to living
and recovery. Her tenderness was
very lovely, yet there was something
lacking within him. 1t was as if he
were looking at lovely picture that
did not belong to him. She was his
wife, and of course her place was
there. Eunice, he remembered, al
ways did the right thing.
The day before he was to be sent
home the house physician sat beside
him, Eunice being absent The doc.
tor was young man, but he had met
and faced life in various phases, and,
moreover, he had quick perception
"Mr. Ferry" he said, as he arose,
Il want to tell you that the reason
IN
you are here to go home at all, Is
that your wife wouldn't let you die!
None of US, no power on earth, could
have saved you if she had not held on
to you with set teeth and unwavering
will and-and loved you back to life!
All the science in the world stops
there-we can't explain it, we don't
try to, but I've seen it before-a wom-
an simply defying death to snatch the
man she cares for absolutely! You
can thank Mrs. Ferry for your life."
Ellsworth Ferry, left alone, thought
many things. Down in his heart he
knew the doctor spoke the truth and
he cringed with shame that he had
ever doubted her. When she returned
to his bedside and he saw with his
newly opened eyes how careworn was
her face. how thin the hands, how ex-
hausted she was with her long vigil
and, above all, when he saw the brood
ing light in her eyes as she bent
above him. he realized that the ques,
ton never would bother him again
He knew.
And she laid 1t to the vagaries of
sickness when he clutched her hands
and repeated, hoarsely: "Eunice! Eu
nice! You do love met"