Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-04-22

ndd YET seen her. and she nat
changed her mournful garments t
something trifle less depressing
With her masses of fair hair dressed
high. and her face slightly animated
l realized what had not done before
that she was the wreck of a yer!
beautiful woman. Frail as she was, al
most shrinkingly timid in her manner
there were times when she drew VI
her tall figure in something like it's for
mer stateliness. She had beautiful eye
broWs, nearly black and perfectly pen
c1led; they were almost incongruout
in her colorless face.
she was very weak; she used cane
when she walked, and after dinner. II
the library, she was content to sit I'M
passive, detached, propped with cush
ions, while Margery read to the boys
IN their night nursery and Edith EN-
broidered.
Fred had been fussing over play
for some time, and he had gone to reat
1t to some manager or other. Edith was
already spending Tie royalties.
I'VE could go little ways out Of
town." she was saying, "and we could
have an automobile; Margery says
theirs will be sold, and it will certainly
be a bargain. Jack, are you laughing al
me?"
Certainly not" I replied gravely
Dream on Edith. Shall we train the
boys as chauffeurs, or shall we buy IN
the Fleming man, also cheap?'
II am sure" Edith said aggrieved
that it costs more for horse feed this
minute for your gray, Jack, than II
would for gasoline"
But Lady Gray won't eat gasoline,
I protested. "She doesn't like it,
Edith turned her back on me and
sewed. Near me, Mrs. Butler had Ian
guidly taken up the paper; suddenly
she dropped it, and when stopped and
picked it UP noticed she was tremb.
ling.
"Is it true?" she demanded. ''Is Rob-
ert Clarkson dead?"
Yes" assented. "He has been dead
since Sunday morning. suicide"
Edith had risen and come over tc
her. But Mrs. Butler was not fainting.
4'm glad glad" she said Then she
grew weak and semi-hysterical, laugh
ing and crying in the same breath.
When she had been helped upstairs,
for in her weakened state 1t had been
more of shock than we realized. Mar
gerry came down and we tried to forget
the scene we had just. gone through.
Il am glad Fred was not here" Edith
confided to me. ELLEN is lovely
woman, and as kind as she is mild;
but in one of her-attacks, she is bit
trying"
1t was strange to contrast the way
in which the two women took their
similar bereavements. Margery rep
resented the best twpe of normal Amer
lean womanhood; Ellen Butler the
neurasthenic; she demanded every
thing by her very helplessness and IT,
Nudity. She was constant drain on
Edith's ready sympathy. That night.
while I closed the house-Fred had
not come in-I advised her to let Mrs.
Butler go back to her sanatorium.
At twelve-thirty I was still down
stairs; Fred was out and I waited for
him, being curious to know the verdict
on the play. The bell rang few min
utes before one, and I went to the
door; some one in the vestibule was
tapping the floor impatiently with his
foot. When I opened the door, I was
sui plISCu " ulll ILoI lAC lotC SlollOt
was Wardrop.
He came in quietly, and l had
chance to see him well, under the hall
Light the change three days had made
was shocking. His eyes were sunk
deep in his head, his Redeemed lids and
twitching mouth told of little sleep and
nerves ready to snap. He was untidy,
too. and three days beard hardly
improved him.
I'm glad it's you he said nervously
looking at the windows, because I
had an idea you'd keep your head.
Mines gone; I'm either crazy, or I'm
on my way there"
"sit down man. pushed chair to
him. "You don't look as if you hal
been in bed for couple of nights"
He went to each of the windows and
examined the closed shutters before he
answered me.
81 haven't You wouldn't go to bed,
either, if you thought you would never
wake up
Nonsense"
iT0 I,o Continued