The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-29
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BY KATHLEEN NORRIS
Continued From Yesterday

ward girl, with a volumne of Dickens Skipping from her lap as she sat on | Ina Ssock by the fire, teasing her father, l tscolding and representing him. Blazing red on her high cheekbones, untidy Ablack hair, quick tongue and ready laugh; that was the AliX of the old days when he had criticized and pat fronized her. and told her that she sshould be more like Anne and little !Cherryi He remembered being delegated, lone day. to take her into town to the fdentist, aand that upon discovering ithat the dentist was not in his office kShe had been about 13, and had eaten ttoo many peanuts, he thought, and khad lost a petticoat in full sight of the Egrandstand. But how grateful and Ehappy she had been Dear little old blue petticoat!" he said. Dear little old madcap Ahx-!" i There was silence, the silence of }dnanftion, about him. He came to himself with start. He was up on tahe hills in the cemetery-this was fAlix's grave, newly covered with wilt ling masses of flowers, and he was Keeping everybody waiting. He mur- Fmured an apology; the waiting men sTere all kindness and sympathy.
 t He got back into the motor car; 1.-the man who drove them quickly to- kwerd the valley talked easily and ksteadily to Peter, attempting to inter est him in the affairs of some water tcompany in San Francisco. When they Egot to the valley city train was ar { irving. ana Peter saw people lOORlHS Eat him furtively and sorrowfully. He Remembered the many, many times FAUX had waited for him at the trains; Ehe glanced toward the big madrone Funder which she always parked her Fear. She was usually deep in book Eas he crossed from the train, but she bwould fling it into the back seat and smake room for him beside her. The dog would bound into the tonneau, .s,Alix would hand her husband his Smail, the car would start with g great 1tfv1 fl flylTrr sthe cool garden high up on the ridge Cherry looked small and pathetic in l. her fresh black, and her face was marked by secret incessant weeping. { But the nurses and doctors could not : say enough for her self-control: she Ewas always composed, always quietly thelpful and calm when they saw her. land she was always busy. From early
 morning, when she slipped into the E Esick-room, to stand looking at the un- Htent expression that the nurses carae n to know well. until night, she moved
 untiringly about the 9uiet. shaded Eboy, saw that the nurses had their Ehours for rest and exercise, telephon- Bed. dusted and arranged the rooms, Ssaw callers sweetly and patiently. fll- ed vases with flowers.
 Every day she had several vigils in Ethe sick-rooIa and every day at least Eone long talk with the doctors. Every Safternoon and evening had its callers; she and Peter were rarely alone.
 [ Martin was utterly unconscious of Ethe life that flowed on about him :: 5 5eOxneti-nes he seemed to recognize Cherry, anG would stare with painful < intentness into t.ar face. but after a Efew seconds his gaze would wander @to the strange nurses. and the room &that he had never known, and with < a puzzled sigh he would close his eyes 5 again, and drift back into his own EStrange world of pain. fever and un- &consciousness-
 E sudden summons and panic in the old Ghouse. Peter going toward the sick Eroon2 with a thick beating at his heart E ECherry entering, white-faced and with k erins noiselessly near for the last &scene in the drama of Martins suffer Sing But the release did not come. T There would be murmuring among Sthe doctors and nurses; the pulse was Egaining, not losing, the apparently kafatal. final symptoms were proving k would relax; a doctor would go, 8 Enurse slip from the room. Cherry Blocking anxfously from one face to 9another would breathe more easily HIt was inevitable, she knew that now k-hut it was not tc be this minute; il Ewas not to be this houri
 My dear-my dear"' Peter said tc Eher one day. when spent and shaker she came stumbling from Martin: Ebedside and stood dazediy looking
 from the window into the soaking oc: z from blow My poor little Cherry E If could spare you this!"
 'Nobody caan spare me now," she isswhispered. And very simply and E quietly she added: If I have been z 2 fool-if I have been a selfish. wicked E girl all my life am punished!
 ,. ''Cherry!" he protested, heartsick tc Ssee her so.
 Was it wrong for us to love eact kother, Peter?'' she asked in a low tone EtT suppose it was! I suppose it was E,Rut it never seemed as if" she shu h'her eyes and shivered-"as if-this- Ewou1d come of it." she whispered
 '.This!" he echoed aghast.
 "Oh. I think this is punishment, EsCherry continued. ir the same lifeless
 There was a silence. The rail s dripped and dripped from the red <: woods the room in which they 500, B was in twilight, even at noon. Pete E could think of nothing to say
 About two weeks after the acciden there was a change in the tone of tn X physicians who had been giving al [ There was no visible change in Mar r tin. but that fact in itself was so sur
 prising that it was construed into definite hope that he would live.
 Not as he had lived, they warne
 his wife. It would be but restricts
 life; tied to his couch, or permitted at best to move about within a SIna,
 boundary on crutches.
 k Martini his wife exclaimed bite k ously, when this was first discussed
 sHe has always been so strong-s E Independent, He would her-h $ would infinitely rather be dead"' Bu i her mind was busy grasping the pos | abilities, too ''He won't suffer to much 9" she asked fearfully.
 They hastened to assure he- tha the chance of hts even partial recov
 cry was still slight, but that in cas | of his convaIescerfce Martin need nc
 necessa rily suffer.
 Another day or two went by in tn
 silent, rain-wrapped house under tn trees; days of quiet footsteps an