Middletown transcript., 1916-12-09

have really been across the ocean!
never knew but one person who had
been abroad. 1t is DR.. Max Wilson"
Back again to Doctor Max! LIE
Moyne, unpacking sandwiches from a
basket, was aroused by a sheer resent
ment to indiscretiOn.
'You like this Wilson chap pretty
well, don't yOu?"
"What do you means?
"You talk about him rather lot"
This was sheer reckleSsness, of
course. He expected fury, annihilation.
He did not look up, but busted him.
self with the luncheon. When the 81
lence grew oppressive, he ventured to
glance toward her. She was leaning
forward, her chin cupped in her palms,
staring out over the valley that
stretched at their feet.
"DOn't speak to me for minute or
two" she said. "Pm thinking over
what you have just said"
Down through the valley ran a shall
low river, making noisy pretensiOns to
| both depth and fury. He remembered
Just such a river in the TyrOl, with this
same Wilson on a rock, holding the
hand of pretty Austrian girl, while
he snapped the shutter of a camera.
He had that picture somewhere now +;
but the girl was dead, and, of the
three, Wilson was the only one who
had met life and vanQuished it.
"Pve known him all my life" Sid
ney said at last. you're perfectly
right about one thing: talk about
him and l think about him. I'm being
candid, because what's the use of be
ing friends if we're not frank? l ad-
mire him-you'd have to see him in the
hospital, with everyone deferring to
him and all that, to understand. And
when you think of a man like that,
who holds life and death in his hands,
of course you rather thrill. II hon
estly believe that's all there is to it."
eff that's the whole thing, that's
hardly a mad passion" He tried to
smile; succeeded family.
"Well, of course, there's this, too.
know he'll never look at me. I'll be
one of forty nurses; indeed, for three
months I'll be only a prObatiOner. He'll
probably never even remember I'm in
the hospital at all"
81 see. Then, if you thought he was
in love with you, things would be diff
ferent?"
"If l thought DR.. Max Wilson was in
love with me-" said Sidney sOlemnly,
I'D go out of my head with joy"
To hide the shock with which he
realized that she was, unknown to her
self, already in the thrOes of a roman
tic attachment for Wilson, X. suggest
ed a descent to the river. She accept
ed eagerly, and he helped her down.
That was another memory that out
lasted the day-her small warm hand
in his; the time she slipped and he
caught her; the pain in her eyes at
one of his thoughtIess remarks.
'rm going to be pretty lonely" he
said, when she had paused in the de-
scent and was taking a stone out of her
low shoe. Il shall hate to come home
at night" And then, seeing her vince :
"Pve been whining all day. For
heavens sake, don't look like that. If
there's one sort of man l detest more
than another, it's a man who is sorry
for himself. Do you suppose your
mother would object if we stayed out
here ut the hotel for supper? I've Or
dered q moon, orange-yellOw and extra
size"
Il should hate to have anything or
dered and wasted"
F"Then we'll stay"
"It's fearfully eXtravagant."
''I'll be thrifty as to moons while you
are in the hospital"
So it was settled. And, as it hap
pened, Sidney had to stay, anyhow,
For, having perched herself out in the
river on a sugar-lOaf rock, she slid
slowly but with a dreadful Inevitable
ity, into the water. K. happened to be
looking in another direction. So it Oc-
cured that at one moment Sidney sat
on a rock, fluffy white from head to
feet, entrancingly pretty, and knowing
it, and the next she was standing neck
deep in water, much too startled tC
scream, and trying to be digni1ed un
| der the rather trying circumstances. K
had not looked around. The splash haG
been a gentle one.
eff you will be good enough" said
, Sidney, with her chin well up, ito give
me your hand or a pole or something
| because if the river rises an inch
J shall drown"
} To his undying credit, K. LIE Moyne
did not laugh when he turned and saw
her. He went out on the sugar-lOaf
5 and. lifted her bodily up it's slippery
| sides. He had prOdigiouS strength, il
) spite of his leanness.
l 'Well!' said Sidney, when they were
t both on the rock, carefully balanced.
: 'Are you cOld?"
: "NOt bit. But horribly unhappy.
must look sight" Then, remembering
r her manners, as the Street had it, she
/ said primly:
THANK you for saving me-"
5 "There wasn't any danger, really
(. unless-unleSs the river had risen."
/ And then, suddenly, he burst into de
: lighted laughter, the first, perhaps, fol
' months. He shook with it, struggled
r at the sight of her injured face to re
: strain it, achieved finally a degree o.
sObrietv bv fixing his evna on the rive
e ban
i "WLen you nave quite finished saic
: Sidney severely, perhaps you viii
a take me to the hotel. 1 dare say shall
have to be washed and irOned."
e He drew her cautiously to her feet
= Her wet skirts chung to her; her shoe
were Sndden and heavy. She clnnp +,