Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-19
BY JAMES HOPPER.

Delaroche told me the thing himself i'm
| mediately after it had happened, and no
one jhas been able to get a word of 1t
| from him since At the time he was
much overwrought, in fact, to an Anglo
Saxon. was somewhat Of a sight Che has
French blood in him, and it's apt to crop
out when he least expects 1T: but IL ever
I saw Truth manifested, it was in that
choking, painting, sobbing utterance of
the man.
Delaroche was one Of the thousand ped
agogues which the American government
sent to flood these benighted isles with
the limelight Of civilization. His post was
Cabancalan. You don't know Cabanca-
Ian. do you? Southern part Of Negroes,
twenty miles from the mouth of the Hog.
1 rode through there once-God, lonely.
desolate place! A thousand tumbledown
nipa shacks, crumbling church, musty
mountains to the east, not white man
within thirty miles. and the natives them
selves away below the average-on the
edge of savagery.
Well. Delaroche stood it for six months
then went daffy and sent for the girl he
loved in the states. And she came the
10000 miles, and he met her in Iloilo
and they were married, and he took her
across on a prao to her new home-God!
And then. one night, some two months
after. she began to die. She began to
die That's the way he told it to me-
his barrio schools he found her weeping.
with her face In her pillow. She gently
refused to tell him the reason (poor little
girl. he probably would not have under
stoodD: but later she was saying small,
incoherent things. and then he knew she
was in a. fever. Then she began to groan
gently with each expiring breath. and
great fear started to gnaw at his heart.
You don't understand. He told me, and
also. probably, did not understand. She
was q gentle, soft creature. made all for
love and sacrifice. and with something
childish in her that drew the hearts of
men in great tenderness. He was some
what gloomy fellow, with great asperites
in his character and a flaming will. He
craved for sacrifice, and she gave it all
to him, and Yet with her little baby ways
created in him the illusion that he was
the protector.
And now as he sat beneath the OPP
preston Of the heated night by her side.
with that continuous soft little plant in
his ears, he began to see. he began to
see-ah. many little things that he should
yes-that he had refused to see.
When he would return from his long
barrio rides after leaving her all day
face to face with the poignant loneliness
OF ner HE ne was wont TO PICK up q DOok
and plunge into it for the evening Sew
eral times he had seen tears come into
her eyes as he did this. and then. with
laughing false surprise. would ask her
what was. the matter, at which she
smiled and shook her head gently.
There were many other things like
that, but, he told me. this was the pic
tire which tortured him in endless repe-
tition that night. At intervals he raised
the mosquito bar and looked at her and
spoke to her. a great tenderness in his
throat, but. she did not answer, merely
lay with her head on her left arm and
softly, with each breath, came the little
plant. patient and submissive. and it
tore his heart. Then he sat down again
at his vigil with a great muffled fear
a-pound in his breast; and then again he
saw the picture:' He came back from
his barrio ride, picked up a book and
read and tears started in her eyes.
That's how he passed the night. At
dawn great longing to do something
took hold OF him. and. leaving her. he
went out into the pueblo There was not
a physician within fifty miles; it was
the rainy season, and each mile was ten.
Finally he returned, and as he looked
upon her she gripped his arm. Don't,