Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-12-26
CHAPTER W.
Aicxandra's Farewell.

Al-xandra's Farewell.
The morning of the fateful day
dawned gray and rain-swept, with a
chill, searching breeze from the
Sound.
was awakened by determined
rapping with bony knuckles. heard
the old housekeeper's harsh voice:
Breakfast in half an hour, miss.
Time to git up"
The hard practical tone of the WON.
an, an obvious New Englander, con.
uasted strangely with the exotic
halfmysterious character, of the
people who had chosen this peculiar
house FOR their strange experiment. 1t
seemed to bring me back to hard real
titles again. After all, found my feet
firmly based on fact. AS | dressed
this time in my nurses costume that
had not worn for more than two
years. sensed a certain gratitude to-
ward the ignorant garrulous old crea
ture.
With the assumption of my livery
of service something of the imperson
al aplomb of the nurse returned to
me. | found my head clear and my
nerves steady again as | went down
to breakfast.
Alexandra and the doctors were
awaiting me-all three seated in front
of the fire in the beautiful old hall
way. In spite of their obvious efforts
to appear at ease certain suppressed
uneasness, tension, IA waiting strain
dominated them. The approaching
ordeal had surely cast black shadows
before it.
Breakfast was an uncomfortable
meal, even more false in tone than
dinner the night before. Alexandra
again made the pretense of eating.
She touched no morsel, but contented
herself with cup of weak tea. Since
work was to begin at eleven, she
could, Of course, take nothing solid,
During the meal | observed her as
closely as possible. She looked tri-
file pale, thought. but confident and
strong, with kind Of spiritual ex,
altation as II this experiment were
less for her own personal benefit than
for that Of all the race of womankind
and the whole world. A certain high.
spirited courage and resolve was
mirrored in her eyes; noble express
sion, | thought, as of one who, heir to
a vast estate, is about to enter not
without keen suffering into the
promised heritage.
The gloomy morning, an eternity,
was passed in final preparations for
the ordeal. The doctors explained to
me, still more fully, their elaborate
apparatus for controlling the light
rays, heat, humidity, and blood.pres.
sure. They gave me final instructions
concerning diet and care OF the pa.
tient, as well as concerning the rath
er complex oxygenator which was TO
supply her with ozone.
Alexandra was to live. so to speak,
under forced draft, which would keep
her vitality at a high pitch, render her
blood entirely pure, and exat her
whole body to condition of unusual
anaboism essential to the swift heal.
ing Of her wounds, the perfect forma.
ton of the new cuticle, and other
bodily changes.
In addition to all the men detailed
to me something Of the process they
had discovered to alter the plgmenta-
ton of the eye itsef-a process too
technical, difficult, and tedious to be
recorded here--a process, | may say,
never before or since undertaken in
the worlds medical or surgical his
tory.
AT ten-thlrty Br0deur requested me
to visit the patient again and give her
whatever moral or physical assistance