Evening star., 1930-11-30
Under the Oleander
ByM. Il. de Ford.
A Powerful Story of the Jealousy Between Brothers
and a Blind Mans Revenge After Persecution.
IHusraf George

course, it became still more impor-
tant a sort of csnter of my being
Now that it is gone and Gilbert, and IN sense
Anne, and soon I shall be gone myself IL
pleases me to trace the impalpable thread that
bound us all together.
when was still a small child, and Gilbert
was a baby, while our mother and father were
still alive, the oleander was already so large
that by stretching my arm through my peo
room window I could touch the uppermost cool
mink blossoms 1 believe that in the East and
in Europe the olean1er is only small shrub,
but here in California i'll the warm, protected
valleys it grows to tree-like size.
This one had double pink flowers peepmg
out from among the thick, fossy leaves.
remember its appearance so Well-Just as re-
member its faint troubling perfume People
with an insensitive sense OF smell useo 10 say IL
had no perfume at all, but knew better.
NV mother planted it when she was nrSt
married and Gilbert and played under 1t all
through our childhood We used TO PRICK the
leaves with a pin to let out the milky sap, ana
pretend to use them as fodder Tor the anlmaLs
Of our Noah's Ark Gilbert broke most OF the
animals in time as he did all our toys, par
ticularly mine I can still hear my mother
saving LET baby brother have it; he's smaller
than you"
WHEN I was about 18 and thought was
w going to be a poet many is the night l
kpent sitting by the open window in Summer,
instead of in bed where belonged, breathing
with the faint breeze in the oleander, sometimes
stroking the smooth leaves and silky blossoms
that waved Just outside the SILL
Then Gilbert and went to the university
and after I met Anne and almost Immediately
became so wholly and completely hers remem-
ber taking her to the ranch over the Christmas
holidays to meet my parents, and 1 remember,
too standing with her under the oleander tree
and thinking how its flowers were almost
exactly the faint pink of her cheeks
It was raining a little, a soft, pleasant rain,
and Gilbert came out of the house rather
abruptly and took Anne by the arm and hurried
her onto the dry porch.
It was in our last year at college that the
accident happened. You see, though Ghpert
was younger than I, our parents liked us always
to be together and so did not go to the univer-
sity until he was ready. So we were nearly
always in the same classes, and We stood side
by side in the chemistry laboratory. Gilbert
was majoring in chemistry; cannot say had
a scientific mind, and as a selfish personal mat
ter I should much rather have specialized in
languages; but father preferred us to take the
same course, so, Of course, we did.
Gilbert was much better than In chemistry
in fact imagine gained the name of being
a good deal of dullard, for couldn't seem
to get interested in the things I was studying,
and did too much irrelevant reading on the
side.
thought went to Anne. I really think II that
dreadful thing hadn't happened Anne might
have felt for me some day as did Tor her.
But of course it was such a dreadful shock 70
Gilbert that for time he seemed really in O
more pitiable case than !, and only Anne could
comfort him. Besides, 1 should never have
asked Anne to take blind and disfgured man
for husband.
They say it was defective test tube. It
must have been, of course. All can recall Is
standing by Gilbert IN the laboratory while ne
heated the tube over a BunSen burner, and then
the sudden soaring agony After months in .
hospital they got me on my feet again.
The sight Of both eyes was completely gone.
No one ever told me the rest, except that one
time when Gilbert couldn't control himself, just
before he died; but though I couldn't see.
could feel that my face was no longer the lace
I had known. Poor Gilbert! It was terribly
hard on him.
They took me to the ranch, and the only
comfort there was for me in life was the
oleander tree used to lie under it all day In
the sunshine. could reach up and touch its
rough bark and the leaves and the flowers, and
It was as if there were one friend left in the
world from whom need not shrink or hide. I
clung to it morbidly, suppose. know that
the day they told me Anne was going to marry
Gilbert threw my arms around its trunk and
lay for hours with my SCARED face hidden by
its root It is strange that eyes can shed tears
when they can no longer see.
After father died mother and I lived alone
together Gilbert and Anne were in the city.
He had not become a chemist after ALL
suppose it was too painful for him after what
had happened.
don't understand exactly what his business
was but 1t had something to do with stocks
and bonds; / know because of his trouble
afterwards They had little girl, but she died.
CHE was only years old at the time, and
~ the circumstances were very sad too.
No one ever told me all the details, but 90