Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-03-10
CHAPTER Lxv.
Copyright 1916. Star Company.

Copyright 1916 Star Company.
Gradually Milton settled down to its
accustomed calm after the tragedies
and shocks that had created such tur-
moil.
And, as 1t settled down, the people
who knew Jane Reeves began to speak
of her once more as they had spoken
of her when she was a girl.
If there had been any hard feelings
toward the young, wife who had
seemed to withdraw from her former
associates, they were set aside. The
sinister rumors, the fearful suspicious
that had been whispered after her
husbands death. were forgotten-at
least, they were silenced so completely
that Jane herself never knew of the
shadow that had hovered over her
the shadow that the confession and
suicide of Mary Baird had banished.
AS the weeks passed, the girls old
friends came often to ask about her.
Sometimes they had a glimpse of her
when she was well enough to see
them. She gained strength slowly and
was like the ghost of herself.
Each week there came from town
a box of flowers addressed to Jane.
There was no card with them, and the
girl never asked who sent them. II
she suspected from whom they came,
she accepted them as a token of SYM
pathy of pity, and would not allow
herself to fancy they were the bearers
of any more tender message.
II Ezra Hardy was in the secret
he did not betray it. He had grown
strangely gentle of late, and Jane
found his tenderness toward her al
most pathetic. She felt no resentment
for the part he had played in trying
to arrange her life for her. He, too,
had put his fingers on the machinery.
and he had suffered for his interfer-
ence.
Nobody but Ezra and his wife knew
how wretched they had both been
during the winter after James mar
riage. They had sent their daughter
from them and they seemed to have
lost her. They had seen, too, that she
was unhappy, although they tried to
smother their misgivings in reproaches
and reproofs at her indifference. Then
she had returned to them-a broken,
distraught creature; and, as they
watched her lying at the very gate Of
death, they felt that their punish
ment was greater than they could
bear. ....
But now she was restored as If by
a miracle; and she declared that she
never wanted TO leave them again.
For awhile this assurance had salts
fled Mrs. Hardy, but as the wistful
look fingered in her child's eyes the
mother wondered IL the light-hearted
girl had forever vanished. Was the
spring of youth in her entirely dry?
Would she never be really interested
in anything again
She is Interested in you and her
father" Mr.. Evans reminded Mrs.
Hardy when she asked him this ques-
ton.
"Sho used to be interested in every
thing" the mother argued. Now she
is as settled as il so her was a middle
aged woman instead of a young thing.
wish l knew what to do
DO nothing!" admonished the pas
tor. Don't interfere with Gods ways
Remember-that was done once"
He did not mean to be severe. But
Mrs. Hardy understood and obeyed.
She repeated this conversation to
her husband. He said nothing, but
looked grave.
Surell, he reasoned within himself, he
was not interfering with Gods ways
in answering certain letters that came
to him. This was only helping things
along.