The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-09-09

nurse and housekeeper, Aunty Kate, to
look out for him.
Not one bit of shrinking, only IN
daunted courage entered into this
mans acceptance of the result of the
supreme sacrifice he had offered his
country and humanity-only q desire
to be alone for awhile. to think things
out. to formulate some philosophy of
life to replace the ambitions which
now must be relinquished forever.
Footsteps sounded on the board
walk. Aunty Kate looking out of her
kitchen window, saw two women ap-
preaching, one elderly, with a fretful
face. the other young, piquant and
CARRIED In the uniform of a nurse. The
blind man heard two voices, one young
and fresh:
'Oh. Mrs. Bently. If you had only
come out here yesterday-Just a mass
of tumbled waters. raging against the
gale. the huge waves breaking right
over this walk"
A querulous voice answered, Il
never go out in storm if l can help
it."
When the two women were out of
earshot of the man the younger re-
marked, That's Major Angre. He's
a very famous surgeon-or. rather.
was. He's blind now"
The querulous woman, reused for
the moment out of her absorption In
imaginary Ills, asked. How did it
happen? In this war;" The nurse
nodded.
well, it only goes to prove what
my father and his father before him
always said, that this country would
go to rack and ruin when the Repub-
lican party went out of power"
When the two women had passed
from sight Aunty Kate emerged from
her kitchen. ''Those must be the
people who are staying in that little
cottage back on the creek" she said,
where I've seen the light nights. The
girl is nurse and the older woman
her patient, evidently. Don't envy her
the job. She looks like fussy old
thing"
That night at ten o'clock lights
shone in two places in the little beach
colony. Then simultaneously the
lights vanished. In their living room
Aunty Kate was reading aloud to her
charge, stumbling through the long
words of a medical magazine. She
stopped abruptly with. 1.-The electric
lights are out"
; Then it's up to you to rustic out
the lantern and candles. 1t wouldn't
matter to me-" the blind man added
refiectiyely, "if they stayed out for
ever" To himself he said.- mo
amount of ligh: will ever enable nv
dear old nurse to negotiate those
words. It's going to be necessary to
find someone who can soon, though, If
I want to keep abreast of things"
In the little house by the creek the
young nurse. with the aid of a flash
light, was searching for possible
candles, while her charge sat perfectly
still, only her tongue wagging on in its
usual complaining way, when a knock
sounded on the door. The nurse
opened, in the midst of her patients
protests that 1t wasn't safe to do So
and disclosed Major Angre holding &
lantern and accompanied by his house
keeper.
1T occurred to u.s." he said, that as
our lights are out yours must be also.
Aunty Kate decided that as none ap-
peared In your window you must be
without any way of making one so
wes took the liberty of bringing you
some candles"
Mrs. Bently hustled forward and in
vited them in, introducing the nurse
as Miss Forbes, doing most Of the
talking, and monopolizing everybody's
attention as only a selfish person can.
So that, on her way home, when the
blind man remarked, THAT woman Is
a pest" Aunty Kate knew very well
whom he meant. and heartily agreed.
Neither spoke of Miss Forbes, per-
haps because both were thinking about
her. In Aunty Rates mind was evolv-
ing a scheme. She shrewdly suspected
that Mrs. Bently's continual recital OF
imaginary Ills must everlastingly bore
anyone doomed constantly to listen.
Her own evenings. spent In struggling
with those technical terms. so futfleiy,
were daily becoming more of a bug
bear. So at the first opportunity she
proposed 70 the nurse that she bring
Mrs. Bently over some evening.
Mrs. Bently jumped at the chance
for fresh audience. but was some
what chagrined when she found it
limited to the housekeeper. For
through that good woman's macnlna-
lions, somewhat abetted by the young
nurse. the latter took up the task of
reading to the blind man. The tech
Forbes and the subject matter of the
articles deeply interested her. FIRE.
Quently she would pause and ask some
intelligent question; then would ensue
discussion. Meanwhile Aunty Kate
was sympathetic in a good cause and
pretended to be deeply interested in
the Bently family history.
So things went along, Major Angre
looking forward more and more to
the evenings visit, and the nurse only
enduring her days because of it. But
ii took another bad storm to bring
them both to a realization of whittier
they were drifting. All day. all night
and still another day the sodden down
pour continued. Mrs. Bently. of course
wouldn't venture out. And when
rather late in the evening of the second
day, she had gone to bed and to sleep
utterly worn out by her constant rail.
ing against fate, the nurse took the
chance to slip out 10 the beach for a
breath of fresh air.
The rain had almost ceased. Miss
Forbes stood in the darkness watch
ing a light streak In the clouds to the
! eastward. Suddenly someone appeared
out of the night and stood beside her
Even in the siarless night she knew
him.