Year: 1873

QeV0tlGn utter madness, ana asserted that


it had cut off the one faint hope that per


feet rest and freedom from agitation might


have given for her ultimate recovery. |


am not going into technicalities here; it


is enough that the long anxiety and


double shock had affected heart and


spine equally: and the dictum went forth


that, though she might live for years, so
she might die at anF moment and in


either case she could never walk abroad


again, never rise from bed or sofa IN this


world.


| think | see now the patient smile on
her wan face as she said:


Goods will be done. | suppose it is


is for some good, since He wills it. am


glad He has taken nv mother into his


care, now mine is useless any more"
| wonder could any onlooker count up
the amount of good dens by that help


less woman during the eighteen years


she lay on her sofa in the little parlor at


Caroline Place?


Fain would | have made her my wife,
when | thought the first sharpness Of her
sorrow had come TO wear off, but |


never got my prayer uttered. She di-


vined what | was going to say, and stop
ped me by a word whose exceeding gen


tleness only added force to its decision.


It was then | knew that her life was TO be
sacred to the memory of the man who


was to have been her husband, and
whose desertion had made him dead to


her as though she were his widow in


deed


The justice Of this world generally re-


CARDS Tilted women with sort of scorn-


iul pity, nearly allied to contempt. Miss
GuTney's misfortune seemed to procure


her even a larger share of atfectionate re
spect than had ever been her lot


Her couch was drawn into the window
where stood her workable and flower
stand, and where day after day she looked
out on the high dead wall OF the Found
/ ling grounds, and the stunted trees grow
ing in the railings outside it, When |
pitied her on the Qullness Of her prospect,
however she only smiled and SAID:
"Why, | can watch the leaves bursting
into green, and turning TO gold as the
year goes round. and | hear the birds
singing in the branches, and the laughter


OF the children at play in the Founding
grounds. You must not abuse my win
dow, Dr. Elliott"


Also when pressed to move her home
to pleasanter locality, she always gave
the same answer:


"All the happiness Of my life has been
bound up in this little house. 1t would
be very ungrateful to leave it for another
| because the happiness has gone away be-
fore me-" And so Miss Quincy held her
ground from girlhood TO w0manhood,
never stirring Wealth came to her
| through the death of a relation, and she
spent 1t freely on the poor who had so
long blessed her name; and the poor
came to her now that she could no longer
go TO them; children to be taught, maid
ems TO be cOunseled, widows 10 be COM
forted, orphans 10 be cared for-all came
10 Miss GuTney, and went away happier
and better for her gentle ministraUon.
/ That little sofa in the window was the
! Jordan wlere many destitute wretch


was healed from want and misery and sin.
Ay, sin, for none were too depraved or too
guilty TO be reached by Miss Gurney's
mercy. The rector was her guide, l her
prime minister; and between us as the
years went on, We provided her with work
enough to do and to spare.


Sometimes | feared she was wearing
herself out; but one could not see the
white, wisttul face, and wasted form in its
long black dress without feeling that any
work would be blessed which led her to
the home for which her bruised spirit
craved


That home was reached at last.


Nearly twenty years had passed from
the day Of that fatal letter, when | was
called to attend an invalid nobleman at


the West Fad. He had been i'll for some
time; but a crisis in the disease had come


on, and the family surgeon called in my
| assistance to his noble patient
The first day | went | was received by
a young and very pretty girl whom i'm
q rin 10 no no dan I1DfIi
she introduced herself as Lady Scarsdale,


with merry littly laugh at my mistake;
and then, though the name struck me
painfully, | never guessed at its belonging
TO any one but some distant relation Of the
young lieutenant of former days, till on
being taken TO the sufferers bedside, |
recognized at once in the stern-lO0king,
| bearded man the individual Of all others
whom | most despised.


He did not recognize me at all. From
a thin, pale, fair-haired man, had grown
into a burly, bald-headed, gray -whiskered
old fellow, as unlike my former self as
possible; and as for my name, that was
too common to attract attention.


It was not pleasant for me to be attend
ing Lord Scarsdale; but he was in very
bad way, and | had consented to give my
services before | knew who required
them: besides, the illness under which he
labored was supposed to be my specially,
50 | could not IN conscience throw up the
case.


You may be sure said no word to Miss
! Gurney OF my new patient.


I soon found out that Lord Scarsdale's
home was anything but happy one. He
had married thus late IN life q young and
giddy girl. whom he loved warmly, but
with jealous, moody, exacting affection,
which rather repelled that attracted its
object.


She had indeed fallen in love with him
for the name of his past -conquests, and
for the fascination Of manner he still re-
tanned; but the marriage had turned out


worse than ILL., He had drunk out pleas


ure to the dregs, and now only wanted
rest and quiet FOR the remainder of his life
She was beginning hers, wilful as a child
restless as q kitten, and desperately fond
of love and admiration.


OF course he was furiously jealous; men


who have been false and tickle all their
lives never believe in the fidelity of 9TH


ers; and in consequence he made himself


so disagreeable to his young wife, that she


took To flirting in real earnest; and at the
time | was called in, ''Scarsdale's jealousy
and his wife's beauty and frivolty" had
become by-word with the inhabitants Of
Belgravia, male and female. Some one


else had become a by-wOrd, too, in con-
nection with Lady Scarsdale, and that was