South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-12-30

lie listened while | told him his medicine
would be sent up within an hour. and then |
made some remark about the overheated tenn
perature of the room. He looked at me in the
oldest way.
June is my bad month" he said curtly-his
first admission that he was in at all.
Why I asked, but he would not tell
Why for quite long time, and, indeed, showed
as plainly as a man could that he wished me
10 leave him.
But at last lie reierted so far as to say
with a queer distrust Ia his manner:
Did not Dr. Mott tell you? Years ago | had
q great grief in Juns." He stopped, and fun
bled with his bony hands at the lapes of his
coat And then he half rose in his chair. and
cried out in a voice trat shall never forget:
oh, it's hell itself or the twenty-eighth of
June. | hear him crying TO me always. but
never, never like he cries to me on the twenty
eighth OF June. Oh, my God. my God; his face
in the water," And there he with his head
buried in his hands, quivering and shaking
from head 10 foot
Not another word ccnld get from him. and
the finish of it was that | left him. and IN the
hail told the butler that ! wished 10 speak 20
NJ Chaldrake's sister She came 70 me,
sad-faced woman of middle age. who seemed
in keeping with all else in that house of desc
latiOn. | gave her few very definite instruc
lions, and told her that her brothers state was
gravely serious. and she listened primly, and
said that everything should be done as l de
sired.
And tell me-" said what is this grief
your brother had years ago, the grief that al
ways comes back TO him in June?'
She looked UP at me, and am sure there
was resentment and dist-ust in her eyes just
then; she looked thOu-@ she thought | was
trying TO pry into matters which did not con-
Germ me.
Il will show you II you can wait moment"
she said quietly. and she slipped away like a
little mouse. 70 return a minute later with an
old an dyellowed newspaper cutting. which she
passed 20 me without a word. | glanced at the
date; Il was a page from the Times, and the
date was June 30, twenty-five years ago. And
the news upon the page concerned the going
down in sAe Channel Of the p & o. liner Laven-
tic outward ~Sund to the East-an event dim
~ remembered.
See" she said, and pointed to the list OF
drowned. tss
looked and read
Hugh Chiffon Chaldrske. younger son OF
John Chaldrake. of Merehurst Manor. Mere
hurst, Surrey"
"He was James brother and nine" she said
in that acid voice vi ners. James always
very fond of him"
! thought ! began 10 understand then. and
I remember that ] had just then quick i'm
pulse OF pity for that gaunt-faced man ! had
just left. ] repeated my instructions 10 Miss
Chaldrake and came away And that same
night ! wrote to Mott and told him OF James
Chaldrakes condition, mentioning, too, that l
was very interested in the man
Motifs letter from Edinburgh did nothing to
lessen my interest in James Chaldrake. in
deed il stimulated that interest very consid-
erably. He wrote as follows:
Il am sorry but not in the least surprised
that Chaldrake has had a relapse quite agree
with you that his condition is serious. You
seem TO have been told little about that I'M
happy house, but perhaps ! can I'LL in the
blanks. Chaldrake has never got over the loss
OF his younger brother. who went down In the
Laventic on the twenty-ninth Of June, score
OF years ago. Hugh Chaldrake was going out
10 take up a post in Ceylon, always under
stood The story, ] have always heard II.
Is that the two brothers had had quarrel
and had not been on speaking terms during
the year that preceded Hugh's death The
reason? Cherchez la femme. my dear Allaoy.
There was the inevitable woman, and the story
goes that first one of the brothers and then the
other was the favorite for her hand But
eventually she chose Hugh. and the elder
brother was left inconsOl-0le. The gossips had
II that James would be sure to marry the lady
after a decent interval had elapsed following
his brothers deatah, but the gossips were quite
wrong. and no such thing happened Almost -