Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-17
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
EDWARD FANE'S ROSEBUD
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

erous dream had admitted another into
, her heart-yet the sick man had been
preparing . revenge which the dead
now claimed. On his painful pillow
he had cast q spell around her. His
groanS and misery had proved more
captivating charms than gayety and
youthful grace. In his semblance Dis
ease itself had won the Rosebud for o
bride. nor could his death dissolve the
nuptial, for she was ever afterward a
nurse.
We have beheld her as the maid, the
wife, the widow. Now we see her in
separate and insulated character. She
was in all her attributes Nurse loot
haker. And Nurse Toothaker alone,
with her own shriveled lips, could make
known her experience In that capacity
What a history might she record Of the
great sicknesses in which she had gone
hand in hand with the exterminating
angell
Nurse Toothaker loves to tell how
strong men fight with fiery fevers, ut
terly refusing to give up their breath
and how consumptive virgins fade out
their lovers were wooing them to q far
country. Tell us. thou fearful woman,
tell us the death secretsl Fain would
I search out the meaning of words
family gasped with intermingled sobs
and broken sentences, half audibly
spoken between earth and the judy
ment seat.
An awful womanl She Is the patron
saint OF young physicians and the
bosom friend of old ones. In the man
sions where she enters the inmates
provide themselves with black gar
mentS, the coffin maker follows her, and
the bell tolls as she comes away from
the threshold. Death himself has met
her at so many a bedside that he puts
forth his bony hand to greet Nurse
Toothaker.
She was an awful womanI And, oh,
1t Is conceivable that this handmade of
human infirmity and affiiction-so
darkly stained, so thoroughly imbued
with all that is saddest in the doom of
mortals-can ever again be bright and
gladstone, even though bathed in the
sunshine of eternity. By her long COM
munion with woe has she not forfeited
her inheritance of immortal Joy? Does
any germ Of bliss survive within her?
Hark! An eager knocking at Nurse
Toothaker's door. She starts from q
drowsy reverie, sets aside the empty
tumbler beside her, and lights a lamp
at the dim embers of the fire
Rap, rap, rapl Again! She hurries
down the staircase, wondering which of
her friends can be at deaths door now,
since there Is such an earnest messenger
at Nurse Toothaker's. Again the peal
sounds just as her hand Is no the lock.
sBe quick, Nurse Toothakerl" cries
man on the doorstep. "Old Gen.
Fame Is taken with the govt in his
stomach and has sent for you to watch
by his death bed. Make haste, for
there Is no time to losel"
Fame! Edward Fanel And has he
sent for me at last? I am ready. I
will get on my cloak and be gone. &c."
adds the sable-gowned, ashen- faced,
funeral-old figure. Edward Fame re-
members his Rosebud!"
Our question is answered. There Is
| germ Of bliss within her. Her long
boarded constancy; her memory of the
bliss that was, remaining amid the
gloom of her after-life like sweet
smelling flower in a coffin, Is a symbol
that all may be renewed. In some
happier cline the Rosebud may revive
again with all the dewdrops in its
bosom!