The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1922-04-13
CHAPTER xlx-continued.


est him In the affairs of some water
company In San Francisco. When they
got to the valley q city train was ar
irving and Peter saw people looking
at him furtively and sorrOwfully. He
remembered the many, many times
Alix had waited for him at the trains (;
he glanced toward the big madrone
under which she always parked her
car. She was usually deep In a book
as he crossed from the train, but she
would fling II into the back seat and
make room for him beside her. The
dog would bound into the tOnneau,
AK would hand her husband his
mail. the car would start with a great
plunge toward the mountain-toward
the cool garden high up on the ridge
I"
Cherry looked small and pathetic in
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
was always composed, always quietly
helpful and calm when they saw her,
and she was always busy. From early
morning. when she slipped into the
sick-room, TO stand looking at the I'M
conscious Martin with a troubled, in
tent expression that the nurses came
to know well, until night, she moved
untiringly about the quiet, shaded
house. She supervised the Chinese
boy, saw that the nurses had their
hours for rest and exercise telephoned,
busted and arranged the rooms, saw
callers sweetly and patiently, filed
vases with flowers.
Every day she had several vigils In
the sick-rOom. and every day at least
one long talk with the doctors. Every
afternoon and evening had It's callers /;
she and Peter were rarely alone.
Martin was utterly unconscious of
the life that flowed on about him /;
sometimes he seemed TO recognize
Cherry, and would stare with painful
intentness into her face, but after a
few seconds his gaze would wander
TO the strange nurses, and the room
that he had never known, and with
again, and drift back into his own
strange world of pain, fever and I'M
consciousness.
Almost every day there was the
sudden summons and panic in the old
house, Peter going toward the sick
Cherry entering, white-faced and with
terrified eyes, doctors and nurses gath
ering noiselessly near for the last
scene In the drama of Martins suffer
ing. But the release did not come.
There would be murmuring among
the doctors and nurses; the pulse was
gaining, not losing. the apparently
fatal, final symptoms were proving
neither fatal nor final. The tension
would relax; a doctor would go, a
nurse slip from the room; Cherry
looking anxiously from one face ia
another, would breathe more easily.
II was inevitable, she knew that now
but II was not to be this minute; IT
was not to be this hour!
''My dear-my dear" Peter said to
her one day, when spent and shaken
she came stumbling from Martins bed
side and stood dazedly looking from
the window into the soaking October
forest, like a person stunned from a
blow. my poor little Cherry If !
could spare you this ~
Nobody can spare me nowr she
whispered. And very simply and
quietly she added: IF have been a
fool-if have oear 'aihsh, wicked
girl all my life. | am punished
Cherry" he protested, heartslck to
see her so.
~Was ii wrong for us to love each
other, Pster?" she asked in a low tone.
al suppose II was l suppose 1t was
But II never seemed as if" she shut
her eyes and shivereG-"as if-this-
would come of IT," she whispered.
'"rhisr he echoed aghast.
'Oh, ! think this is punishment
Cherry continued, in the same lifeless,
weary tone.
There vas a silence. The rain
drIpped sud dripped from the red
woods, the room in which they stood
was in twilight, even at noon. Peter
could think Of nothing to say.
About two weeks after the accident
there was a change in the tone of the
physicians who had been giving al
most ell their time TO Martins case.
There was no visible change In Mar.
tin, but that fact in itself was so sur
prising that IL was construed into a
definite hope that he would live.
Not as he had lived, they warned
his wife. 1t would be but a restricted
life; fled TO his couch, or permitted
at best, to move about within a small
boundary on crutches.
Martini his wife exclaimed pite-
ously when this was first discussed
HE has always been so strong-so
independent He would rather-he
would infinitely rather be deadl I" But
her mind was busy grasping the pos
sibiiities, too. "Ie won't suffer toe
much r she asked fearfully.
A.