Ontario Community Newspapers

Port Perry Star, 1 May 1907, p. 6

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0 answer, he repeats yh imjperatively, 5, wy shot { ome? Where should - Roome to 1" says the young man, lifting head, "where can I find such plain of her as here? I will stay." : le Ays this 'with an air of resolution, d once more lays down his face upon Aho footstool, which, being entirely worked "inbeads, has impressed = the Aeheek thrust against it with a design in "4 small hollows, a fact of which the suf- joferer is quite unaware, #'. "You cannot stay!" cries Burgoyne, *% 'the more impatiently that his own share + of anxiety is fretting his temper almost past endurance ; "you cannot stay, it is out of the question ; they want fo come info._the rooms, lo prepare them for new occupants," © "New ocoupatits I" tepea's Byng, turn- ng over almost 'on his faces, and falters] Ang his nose and lips against (he beaded surface of his stool; "other occupants Ahan her, Never! never I" 1 is. 10 be placed to the credit side of « Burgoyne's account that he does not, n. this declaration, withdraw the vesting-place from his . young friend's oounlenance and break il over his head, IL is gemalaly not. the temptation to do 80 that is lacking. Instead, he sits down at some distance off, and says quietly. *1 see, you will force them to call in the police. You will make a discreditable esclandre, How 'good for her; how con- ducive to her good name, | congrafu- late you!" The other has lifted his head in a moment. : What do you mean ?" 5 "Do you think," asks Jim, indignant. ly, "that it is ever very advantageous to & woman to have her name mixed .up in a vulgar row? And do you suppose that hers will be kept out of it? Come"-- seeing a look of shocked consternation breaking over the young man's face, and determining fo strike while the iron is ~hot--"1 will call a Tlacre, and we wi] £0 home 10: the hotel. ~ Put back her things nto her 'basket. What right have you fo. meddle with {hem ? ou have 'no business to take advantage of her ab- sence' 10 do" what you would not do if she Were here." Byng obeys with a scared docility's his eyes are so dim, and his fingers tremble 80 Thuch, that Jim has to help him in re- placing Elizabeth's small properties. His own heart is pricked with & cruel smart that has no referénce to Amélia's illness, as he handles the departed girl's spools and skeins, and awkwardly folds her scrap of broidery, Byng offers no fur ther resistance, and, equally indifferent 15 his own bunged-up eyes, béad-marked cheeks, and disheveled locks, follows his companion dully, down: the stone stairs, compassionalely watched from the top by Annunziata, whose heart is an incon- veniently tender one {0 be matched with 80 tough a face. They get into the flacre, and drive in dead silence lo the Minerva, Arrived there, Jim persuades his friend, who now seems. prepared to acquiesce meekly in whalever he is told fo do, to li» down on his bed, since the lew words that he utlers convey the fact of his be- Ing suffering from 8 burning headache, & phenomenon not very surprising, con- sidering his late briny exercises; since, even al the superh age of twenty-two, it is" difficult to spend six hours in bang- ing your forehead against a. parquet floor, in moaning, bellowing, and weep- ing, without leaving some traces of these gymnastics on your: physique. : Burgoyne stands or sits patiently be pide him, bathing his fiery temples with eau de Cologne, not teasing 'him with any - 'questions, 'having, indeed, on His own part, thd least possible desire' for conversation'; and so 'the heavy hours g0 by. The day has declined to evening before Burgoyne quils his protege's side 107 dine, shortly, and. solitarily, previous, to making 'a third visit to the Anglo- i 10 learn the latest mews of He had left Byng still stretched ipon "his bed, apparently asleep, and is theré- fore the more surprised, on returning to fake a final look 'at him before set out on. his own errand, to find him up, stick in' hand, evidently | walk. ol rma ome ol ck sympathy in next and in the way in which they tered. Si BL RR "Oh, poor Amelia, I am sorry! By 'all means let us go al once and ask after her. Is there nothing that we can get? ~nothing that we can do for her?" It is the question that. dim, fri baflled | foy anxiety; puts when he is admitted Inside the dull 'salon, where no love- homely face to-night lights up the tender candles of its glad eyes, from over ils stitching, at his entry. . Ha is lying less comfortably than usual on her: sofa, her cushions not plumped up, and her boltles of smelling- salls polled out of her reach. Mr, Wil | son is walking uneasily' up and down the room. instead of silting placidly in hig chair, with the soothing voice--which hs had always thought as much to be counted on, and as little to be particu- larly thankful for, as the 'air that fills his lungs--Iullingly reading him fo sleep. "Cecllia Is with her just now," he says, In a voice of forlorn. irritation. "I wish she would come down again; I have no great opinion of Cecilia as a slck-nurse; and she must know. how anxious we are." 'A moment lator, still pursuing his fidgetly ramble from wall to wall, and exclaiming peevishly, as he stumbles over a footstool, "If it would only 'de- clare itself! Tnere seems fo be nothing to lay hold of, we are so completely in the dark--if it would only declare itself" A not very subdued sob from the sofa Is the only answer he gets, an answer which evidently irri'ates still further his fretted nerves, "1 cannot think what Cecilia is doing 1" ho cries, hastening ta the door, opening it noisily, and then listening. "Let me run up and see," says Jim, his heart going out to the fractious old i man in a sympathy of suffering," "Yes, | ® I know where hér room is--au troisieme, ist not 7" (a flash of recollection lighting "up the fact that Amelia's 4s 4 the worst. room of the suite occupied by. the | 50 Wilson "family ; "the room' with most stairs to climb to, and least acco moda- tion: when you 'reach it), "1 wil knock quite: gently. Do nol. be Afraid; I wi (not; disturb cher," and 1: will 'dome' do immediately io tell you." # Without "wailing for permission, he| springs up the stairs, and, standing on the landing; taps cautiously on the closed door, whose number (by one of those quirks of memory that furrish all our minds with insignificant facts) he has recollected, His first Imock is so superfluously soft that it is evidently in| 9 audible: within, 'since no result follows upon it, His second, a shade louder, though still muffled by the fear of break- ing into some little "fitful yet salutary sleep, brings Ceeilla' 'out; His first glance 'at her face shows, him that she has no good. news, 'either fo' warm. his | © own heart, or for him to carry down as a solace to the poor old man below. "Oh, ft is you, is it?" says. she, shut : ting the door behind her with a clumsy carefulness that makes it creak. "No, 1 du not think she is any better ; but it is so difficult to tell, I am no judge. She does not complain of anything particu. lari but she Jooks so odd." "If she is 'asleep, might not I just look in at her?" he asks: "I do not know what you mean when you say she looks odd." "She is not asleep," replies Cecilia, in a nolsy whisper, much mare likely 'to pleroe sick ears than a vc in ts normal Koy | "al Teast But'T am sure you ought not tq' Dt. Coldstream said she was 6 be pt very 'quiet, "and nothing: would upset bor | ¥ pre ire 50 much as se yo Spy _-- heed Se acts ime; 2 I would only © just one look at her from: the door," persists: Jim," who [rir 0 whose lensity. surprises 5 hos gnawing ; : sell, to be assured by the evidense of | own eyes: thal his poor love's face not undergone some strange and : some change, such as is Suggested by ; 'Cecilia's disquietin; : "Do S haauicling would not kno | were there 7" asks she so she hears your slep hich importds hid prod ano connection tories xpedie end Burgoyne speaks 8 compass

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