The Holbrook news., 1922-02-10

and FredS "Anything" Her heart pounded; the nurse ran upstairs. Har- riet fell upon her knees with sOb- ping whisper, "No-no-now and Lin da clung to her husband with a cry torn from the deeps of her heart, "Oh, Pip-my own boy"
 
 Dawn came slowly and reluctantly al seven; the village lay bleak and closed under sky of unbroken gray. Here and there smoke streamed up- ward from a chimney, or a window pane showed an OblOng of pale light.
 Harriet put out the light that was becoming unnecessary. But her heart was singing for joy, and the house was brimful of an inner light and cheer that no winter bleakness could touch. The girl had been crying until she was almost blind but 1t was a cry ing mixed with laughter and prayers of utter thankfulness
 She met Linda at the door, a weary Linda, ghastly as to face, grayer as to struggling hair, but with such radi- ance in her eyes that Harriet. clasped in her arms, began to cry again.
 "Oh, Harriet-if I can ever thank God enough" Pip's mother said, be- ginning on her breakfast with one long sigh. "Oh. my dear! He's sleeping like baby. God bless him, and dear old Fred is sleeping. too. Oh, Harriet, to go about the house. as just have. covering Nanny and the girls, and feeling that we're all going to be happy together again, in a few days my dear, I don't know what I've done to be so blessed! My boy, who has never given anyone a moments care or trouble since he was bOrn-my dar- ling, who looked up at me yesterday with his beautiful eyes"
 The fioodgates were loosed, and Linda laughed and cried, while she enjoyed her breakfast with the appe- tite of a normal woman released from cruel strain. whose whole brood lies safely sleeping under her roof. Nam my's light illness, Pips wet feet, Lin da's unwilingneSs to believe that 1t was anything but cold, every hour of the four awful days of danger, she reviewed them all. And oh. the good ness of people. the solicitude of nurse and doctor the generosity of God! r.
 It was the afternoon of the next day when Harriet could first speak of her own affairs. Linda listened, over her mending, nodded, pursed her lips, or raised her eyebrows.
 If Linda might ever have been worldly minded, she had had her les son now, and the viewpoint she gave Harriet was the lofty one of wOln- an who has faced supreme sacrifice without shrinking and with unwaver- ing faith.
 "You did right, dear," she assured her sister You could not stay there. under the circumstances. Whatever their code is, yours is different, yours has not been vitiated by luxury and idleness. As for MT. Carter's talk of marriage, that, of course, is simply an insult!"
 "No, I don't think 1t was that" Har- riet said, feeling herself revolt inward ly at this plain speaking.
 q don't see what else it could be-" Linda pursued, serenely. "A married man-you would be no better than his well, it's not nice word-but his mistress ?!
 Not at all," Harriet said, trying hard to hide the irritation that rose rebellious within her, "he is legally free, or will be soon, and so am T."
 q am speaking of Gods law, not mans" Linda said, gently but awfully, and Harriet was silent. Fred says that such men regard these matters far too lightly" Linda finished Freds name, thus introduced, always had the effect of angering Harriet. She had shared the family eXaltatiOn over Pips recovery, and had thought more than once in that fearful night of his illness that even poverty, gray hairs and the agony of parenthoOd, shared with the man she loved. would have been ec- stasy to her But in the slow days and weeks that followed, her spirit became exhausted with the struggle that never ended within her. Her bridges were burned behind her; 1t was all Over Whatever her emotions had been in leaving CrOwnlands, the Carters' feelings had been quite Obyi- ous and simple. Old Madame Carter nd ha x-rit ten from college that he thought 1t was rotten" and that she had been a cOrker to get Dad to raise his al- lOwance for him; Nina had felt her own wings the stronger for the change; and Richard had interrupted his little speech of regret to answer the telephone. and had given her check that placed, it seemed to Har- riet, the obligation permanently with her. The utter desolatiOn of spirit with which she had left them was evi- dently unshared; the only word she had had from that old life had been from Mary Putnam, and even this cor dial rOte jared Harriet with its frank revelation of the change in her posi- tion.
 'I can't keep this up." she told her self, playing games with little conva- lescent Pip, walking over frozen roads with the girls, reading under the eve ming lamp. q can't keep this up! 1'wenty-seven and governess, and in love with a married man who does not know I am alive!" summarized Harriet, bitterly. 'I will simply have to forget it, and begin again, that's