The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-04-16
Copy right 1914 by Dodd, hsAd and oonpany

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As for Lydia, she was radiant with
happiness The long fight was over.
She had gone through the campaign
against death with loyal. unfaltering
courage; there had never been an in
staut when her stanch heart had failed
her; there had been distress but never
despair IL the strain told on her II
did not matter. for she was OF the
fighting kind Her love was the sus-
tenance on which she throye despite
the beggarly offerings that were laid
before her during those weeks of fam
inc. Her strong young body lost none
of its vigor; her splendid spirit gloricd
in the tests To which il was subjected.
and now she was as serene as the
June day that found her wistfully con
templating the results of victory.
Times there were when a pensive
mood brought the touch OF sadness to
her grateful heart. She was happy
and Frederic was happy, hut what OF
the one who actually had wrought the
miracle? That one alone was un-
happy, unrequited, undrfeuded There
was no place for her in the new order
of things When Lydia thought OF
her-as she often did-it was with an
indescribable craving in her soul She
longed for the hour to come when
Yvonne Brood would lay aside the
mask OF resignation and demand trib
ute; when the strarYe defiance that
held all OF them az bay would dis
appear and they could feel that she
no longer regarded them as adverse.
res
There was no longer a symptom OF
rancor in the heart OF Lydia Desmond
She realized that her sweetheart's re.
covery was due almost entirely to the
remarkable influence exercised by this
woman at time when mortal agen-
Cies appeared to be of no avail. Her
absolute certainty that she had the
power TO thwart death, at least in this
Instance, had Its effect not only on
the wounded man but on those who
attended him. Doctor Holder and the
nurses were not slow to admit that
her magnificent courage, her almost
scornful selfassurance, supplied them
with an incentive that otherwise might
never have got beyond the form OF a
mere hope. There was something pos
itively startling in her serene convic.
tion that Frederic was not to die No
less skeptic than the renowned
her mother that he now believed in
the supernatural aud never again
would say there In no God" With
the dampness OF death on the young
mans brow. "A remarkable change had
occurred even AS he watched for the
last neetlng breath 1t was as if some
secret, unconQuerable force had sud
denly intervened to take the whole
matter out of natures hands II was
not In the books that he should ret
well; II was against every rule Of ma
ture that he should have survived that
first days struggle. lie was marked
Cor death and there was no alternative.
Then came the bewildcrlng. mystify-
ing change. Life did not take its eX-
pected flight. instead it clung. flicker
Ing but indestructible. to its clay and
would not obey the laws OF nature
For days and days life hung by what
we are pleased to call a thread: the
great shears OF death could not sever
the tiny thing that held Frederic's
soul TO earth There was no hour In
any of those days In which the be.
wildered scientist and his assistants
did not proclaim that II would be his
last, and yet he gave the lie TO them
, Holder had gone to James Brood at
the end OF the third day aud with the
sweat OF the haunted on his brow had
whispered hoarsely that the case was
out of his hands tie was no longer
the doctor but an agent governed by a
spirit that would not permit death to
claim its owni And somehow Brood
understood far better than the man OF
science
The true story OF the shooting had
long been known to Lydia and her
mother Brood confessed everything
TO them. He assumed all of the blame
Tor what had transpired on that tragic
morning. lie humbled himself before
them, and when they shook their
heads and turned their backs upon |
him he was not surprised for he knew |
they were not convicting him OF as. |
sault with a deadly frearm Later |
on the story OF Therese was told by |
n ~ 4. I a..
his wife no injustice in tue recital |
Frederic laid his hand upon the soft |
brown head at his knee and voiced the |
thought that was In his mind