The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-06-24
Continued from page 80
DRIFTING AWAY.

DRIFTING AWAY.
her husband piled away the steak,
mullins, and omelet in most liberal
fashion, and kept himself so busy at
this pleasant work as to permit his
wife's abstemiousness to escape OBJ
servation.
you don't look very well this morn
ing" said l, feeling really concerned.
Bertha smiled family, as her hus-
band turned a look of inquiry upon
her face, and answered.:
"My head aches little;" and then
added, Il hope my fretting baby
didn't keep you awake, l don't know
what allied him. He didn't sleep for
an hour at time all night. Husband
had to go into another room. He can't
bear loss of rest"
'No," said he; Il must have my
regular sleep. How these women
manage to worry night after night
with their babies up and down at all
hours, is more than l can understand.
1t would kill me"
Bertha coughed slightly; cleared her
throat, and coughed again two or
three times. There was a sound in
the cough that was unpleasant to my
ears. , l glanced towards my friend,
to see how it affected him, but he had
not appeared to notice it.
"And kills the mothers sometimes"
ventured to remark.
My friend looked at me for a mo-
ment or two, as if l had disturbed him
slightly, and then went on with his
breakfast. | noticed the cough
again, once or twice, during the meal.
After breakfast my friend and
retired alone to the library, leaving
Bertha to her maternal and household
cares. A sail on the river, which
ran along one side of my friends
estate, and in that "fairest of pleasure
boats about which he had written to
me, was to be our fOrenoon's Occupa-
ton. After spending an hour or two
in the library, talking and reading,
we went down to the river, my friend
carrying a lunchbasket which Bertha
had placed in his hand.
"Why can't you so with us?"
asked, as | looked into her fading
face.
She shook her head, and half-turned
it towards the door, from which she
had stepped into the portico to give
her husband the basket, thus indicat-
ing that duty must go before pleas
ure ~.
Its no use to invite her." said my
friend, in what struck me as light
and careless manner. "She never
goes anywhere. Leave her with her
babies and her servants; she is
happiest among them"
l stood nearest to Bertha when this
was said, and could not have been
mistaken in the sound that reached
met was faint sigh.
There's something wrong here"
said to myself, as we walked towards
the river. "a life is wasting rapidly
away, and no suspicion of the fact
seems to have been awakened. My
friend is either very selfish or very
blind. How can he look into his own
ruddy face, as it stands each day
reflected to him i'm his mirror, and
then look upon that pale, shadowy,
feeting countenance, and not feel the
truth?"
A week at Fern Dale confirmed all
my first impressions as to the rapidly
failing condition of Bertha. And yet
my friend showed no anxiety, no dim
consciousness, even, of the peril in
which his wife stood. How can he
gaze into that pale, thin face" /
would ask myself over and over
again, land not take the warning that
nature gives?" Was his own excite
ment of mere sensuous life so great
that he could not understand a con-
dition like Bertha's? He loved her,
nay, almost idolized her; and when
would hint, occasionally, in a con-
cerned way, my fears touching her
health, he would regard me with a
vague, bewildered countenance, as If
were troubling him with the shadow
of some far-off evil. 1t never seemed
to occur to him that the evil was at
his door.
One morning Bertha did not make
her appearance, as usual, at the break.
fast-table. On asking for her, my
friend answered that she had been up
for most of the night with her baby,
and was too much indisposed to rise.
Nothing serious?" remarked.
"Oh, no." he answered. She often
has such spells. We shall see her at
dinner-tfme, as usual, only looking a
little paler perhaps"
Only little paler! THAT must be
a deathlike pallor, said to myself.
This morning we were to have a
sail on the river. Soon after break.
fast we went to the boat-house, and
unmoored the fairy bark in which we
had already spent SO many happy
hours together AS she glided gently
out, like a bird floating on the buoyant
water, through some mishap the
light cord by which my friend held
her slipped from his hand. and she
passed from his reach in a moment,
out into the current, and commenced