Alma record., 1914-02-19

Moments of half-consciousness or
consciousness jumbled with strange
imaginings, followed. At times he felt
the pressure upon the wounded foot,
was sensible of the suction OF the
young mouth striving desperately to
draw the poison from the wound.
From time to time he was conscious
of a white desperate face haloed with
hair that was a mist Of woven spar
kles. At times he thought himself
a recumbent stone statue In q wood.
and her a great tall golden-headed
flower lying broken at his feet. Again
he was a granite boulder and she
vine with yellow leaves winding and
clinging about him. Then a blank
a sense of movement and Of troublous
disturbance, of insistent voices that
called to him and inquisitive hands
that plucked at him, and then voices
growing distant again. and hands fall
ing away, and at last-silence.
the sunlight when Shirley came from
Damory Court, along the narrow wood
path under the hemlocks and the way
was striped with blue-black shadows
and filled with signing noises. She
walked warily, halting often at some
leafy rustic to catch quick breath
of dread. AS she approached the tree
roots where the cape jessamines lay,
she had to force her feet forward by
sheer effort of will. At little dis
tance from them she broke q stick and
with 1t managed to drag the bunch to
her, turning her eyes with shiver
from the trampled spot near by. She
picked up the flowers, and treading
with caution, retraced her steps to the
wider path.
She stepped into the Red Road at
length in the teeth Of a thunderstorm,
which had arisen almost without warn
ing to break with the passionate in
tensity Of electric storms in the South.
There was no shelter, but even had
there been. she would not have sought
1t. The turbulence OF nature around
her matched, In a way. her over
strained feeling, and she welcomed
the fierce bulge Of the wind In the
upblowing whorls Of her hair and the
drenching wetness of the rain. She
tried to fix her mind on near things,
the bending grasses, the scurrying red
runnels and Tapping shrubbery, but
her thoughts wilfully escaped the
tether, turning again and again to the
events Of the last two hours. She pic
tured Unc' Jefferson's eyes rolling up
In ridiculous alarm. his winnowing
arm lashing his indignant mule In his
fight for the doctor.
At the mental picture she choked
with hysterical laughter, then cringed
suddenly against the sopping bark.
She saw again the doctors gaze lift
from his first examination Of the tiny
punctures to send a swift penetrant
glance at her, before he bent his great
body to carry the unconscious man to
the house Again fit of shuddering
swept over her. Then, all at once,
tears came, strangling sobs that bent
and swayed her. 1t was the discharge
Of the Leyden JAR the loosing Of the
tense bow-string and 1t brought re-
lief. After a time she grew quieter.
He would get well! The thought
that perhaps she had saved his life
gave her a thrill that ran over her
whole body. And until yesterday she
had never seen him! She kneeled in
the blurred half-light, pushing her wet
hair back from her forehead and smil-
ing up in the rain that still fell fast.
In few moments she rose and went on.
At the gate Of the Rosewood lane
stood a mail-box on a cedar post and
she paused to fish out draggled Rich
mond newspaper AS she thrust it un-
der her arm her eye caught a word of
a headline. With flush she tore it
from its soggy wrapper, the wetted
fiber parting in her eager fingers, and
resting her foot on the lower rail Of
the gate, spread it open on her knee.
She stood stock-still until she had
read the whole. 1t was the story of
John Valiant's sacrifice of his private
fortune to save the ruin of the in
volved corporation.
Its effect upon her was a shock She
felt her throat swell as she read; then
she was chilled by the memory of
what she had said to him: What
has be ever done except play polo and
furnish spicy paragraphs for the so
ciety columns?"
What a beast l was!" she said, ad-
dressing the wet hedge. "He had just
done that splendid thing. 1t was be-
cause Of that that he was little better
than beggar, and | said those hor-
rible things" Again she bent her
eyes, rereading the sentences: "Took
his detractors by surprise
had just sustained a grilling at the
hands Of the states examiner which
might well have dried at their fount
the springs Of sympathy
She crushed up the paper In her
hand and rested her forehead on the
wet rail- Idiotically rich-a vandal-
useless, purse-proud flaneur. She
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