San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-22
Andrews Wife Tells Of
Cure and Seeks to
Reclaim Him.
CHAPTER XVIII


high in yellow flare as on the night
of his marriage fifteen years back.
She reached her lean, cold Lane e
his neck. A clammy sickness wreathed
like fogs chilly and touched his. face
his hands.
Andrew, spcak-a miracle"
Lilly"
He knew that her eyes were closed
Her weight lay against him like
death.
She led him into the dining room.
A table was set, candles lighted, flow
ers misty and sweet. SIC smiled :
"See!" and walked in a stiff, halt
ing way to the chair.
He watched with desperate, incredu-
lous shock. Her white face with the
thin, passionate mouth confronting
him, avid, triumphant. Hci bony
hands. the brown eyes half awning,
half furious--always like that. But
that flare of brilliant hair, CHASTITY
against the shrcwish and Ilay-like as
pect of her aging checks
SHOCK FORECAST.
She asked plaintivcly: "Are you
dumb-with joy?'
He took the chair beside her. His
lips smiled: "Dumb--well, the shock. >
Poor boy! l did it to surprise
you"
you did it? You say you did it,
How-Lily-" He remembered DULY
the pronouhccment of a great doctor
who had treated the mysterious all.
ment that kept his wife helpless and
dependent. The doctor said: "Some
day a shock will cure her. If your
wife is ever in burning building and
no one is there to rescue, she will
walk. You are wasting effort-me-
chemically she can walk"
He had not believed that. She had
wept, so specialists were brought down
year after year.
Now. of her own viii s. was bet
ter. Lily Cornish, the woman he hld
all but forgotten rs wife, sat with
her head against his shoulder and whis-
pered feryidly in his ears.
He listened with screaming nerves.
The miracle had been worked by a
woman claiming occult powers. For
three months she had held a camp
on the outskirts of Fairdalc. Hun
AIreds had visited her.
Sought SURPRISE. .....
LAZY looked with those terrible eyes
in hi,5 face: II sent for her. Andrew.
didn't tell you. / wanted the sur
priseL Are you stunned?"
he got up. shaking with heady
sickness: you should have told
me-Excuse me"
"Going-where, Andrew? / have
ordered supper. Is this the way?"-
He sat down Imply, moved her
chair to the table. She put her
hand over his.
She said ENORMOUSLY: you seem
almost sorry"
"No, am glad, of course. It is
difficult to believe. The habits of
years east aside in n moment"
New habit, Andrew; that is the
secret of life. We can begin again"
She smiled at him over her coffee.
He returned it blankly, feeling him
self uncanny as a Duppct in some
cold. dcrisive dream.
She held him there hours. Beads
of perspiration studded his forehead.
He got mp finally, shivering with
cold. Il have work" .r
Tonight. Andrew Her thin mouth
puckered.
"Yes, tonight. 1 came to finish
it."
Tears gathered-two went fatty
down her lean checks Have been
cured-for this?'
A AJu-xxy- nDnUtT
Il nm glad, Lily-of course. Don't
be foolish" ..a -...
He felt her eyes like hot gimlets
boring into his back. He went out
of the house, his mind Keeling. He
stumbled through the bushes TO a
grassy cavern at the end Of the grove.
He sat down and wiped his face. The
cold moisture sccped about his neck.
He felt as though he had been through
some glaring, preposterous ordeal,
wherein n thing nIonstrous, and unac.
ceptable had com. TO pass--his wife
walking-his wife resting on his
shoulder whispering: Il am cured"
He began to wonder why this
should affect him so. lie didn't wish
her helpless. Her words trailcd back
10 MN we Nun DtSlu
They froze him now with contempt
and anger. Her unheard-of claim
After fourteen years she calmly
planned to walk back into his life
and take her place as his wife. Ii
was full decade since he had even
thought of her in such light.
For fourteen years Andrew had
carried her to the garden in the morn
ing; driven her hours when the sun
was out; carried her TO the sunroom
in the late afternoons. He did it gent
ly, regarding her with pity-a pathetic
and qucrulous burden.
FIRE DIES OFT.
Andrew was % when he married
Lily Cornish, q bright haired furious
girl who had stormcd his untaught
heart with her vivid passion. She was
20 but he didn't know this; reckoned
nothing but The hunger and the lure in
her eyes.
Three months after the ill-fated day
Andrew saw what he had done. His
fire Qucnched. Her mad jcalousies no
longer flattcrcd. He was young and
thought Of escape.
Then Lily broke her leg. She suf-
fered. He pitied hcr-he was filled
He got up and went into the house.
The lights were burning in her room.
He heard her moving clumsily, singing
in q soft, discordant key.
He went down the long hall and up
a short flight Of stops to his own quar-
tiers. Her hands Juggling at his neck,
her hair in his face. affronted him