Page 6 (1/2)

The weeks went on, and James led the same life with practically no

variation The sense of a mystery or mysteries about the house never

left him, and it irritated him He was not curious; he did not in the

least care to knohat the mystery consisted, but the fact of

concealment itself was obnoxious to hi, and when it ca shameful, if not cries of mood, of almost more than mood, of character even, disturbed

him

Why a man should be one hour a country buffoon, the next an

absorbed gentleman, he could not understand And he could not understand

also why Clemency had never left the house since he had met her on the

day of his arrival She evidently was herself angry and sulky at being

housed, but she did not atte

expressed anxiety about her health, she laughed it off, and made some

excuse, such as the badness of the roads, or some Christmas hich

she was anxious to finish However, at last Mrs Ewing's concern grew so

evident that Doctor Gordon at dinner one day gave what see indoors "If you will have it,

Clara," he said, "Cleht pain in her side, and pleurisy

and pneumonia are all about, and I told her that she had better take no

chances, and the weather has been raw"

Mrs Ewing turned quite white "Oh, Tom," she murmured, "why didn't you

tell me?"

"I did not tell you, Clara dear, because you would i consu at all I

only want to be on the safe side"

"It is a very little pain, mother dear," said Cle, her voice had a singing quality At such ti man's very soul was possessed of the hter with favor But he was puzzled about the

pleurisy The girl see

a little of her war indoors Still, after all, a

pain is as invisible as a spirit Her friend, Annie Lipton, spent a few

days with her, and then Jaether in Clenorance knehat they talked about They talked a great deal James,

whenever he was in the house, was conscious of the distant h he could not distinguish a word

Annie Lipton was a prettier girl than Cleh without her

personal charnant

She was a girl who should have been a nun, and viewed love and lovers

fro coolness

"Annie Lipton is an anomaly," Doctor Gordon remarked once over his

after-dinner pipe, when they sat in the study listening to the feminine

entle ripple

of a summer sea

"Why?" returned James

"She defies her sex," replied Doctor Gordon, "and still there is nothing

ry and ashamed at her womanhood

If she ever le There are wo men, and there are a very few--so

few as to rank with albinos and white blackbirds in scarcity-- women Annie is a man-hater"

"She is very pretty, too," said James

"If you atte

ladders and all the ancient paraphernalia of siege needed," said Doctor

Gordon laughingly James colored

"It may be that I a

Doctor Gordon again laughed

A little later they went to Georgie K's They went nearly every evening

while Annie Lipton ith Cleo

so often "It is pretty dull for Clemency," Doctor Gordon would say, and

they would rean to be quite sure that Doctor Gordon's visits to Georgie K's were

looked worse than usual and did not eat her

dinner Ja was not

well, although he never dared broach the subject again to the doctor,

and although it made no difference whatever in his own attitude toward

her As well ht he have turned his back upon the Venus, because of

soht abrasion which her beautiful body had received fro come in unexpectedly alone, he found her on the

divan in the living-roo, and his heart went out to

her He flung himself down on his knees beside her

"Oh, what is it? What is theShe uncovered her eyes and looked at hinity Those beautiful eyes,

briaze was steady "If I

tell you, will you keep my secret?" she whispered back, "or, rather, it

is not a secret since Doctor Gordon knows it I wish he did not, but

will you keep your knowledge from him?"

"I promise you I will," said Ja simply "I suffer at times

tortures Don't ask h I have no reason to feel so, it see so ill I feel disgraced by it, wicked" She covered

her face again and sobbed

"Don't, don't," said James, out of his senses completely "Don't, I

can't bear it I love you so Don't! I will cure you"

"You cannot Doctor Gordon does not adives no hope, and you must have noticed how he suffers when he sees

to help me

That is the worst of it all I could bear the pain for myself, but for

the others, too! Oh, I wish there was some little back door of life out

of which one could slip, and no bla but the horrible front door, which ony

to everybody who is left, as well as the one that goes" Mrs Ewing had

coain and moaned

James covered one of her cold hands with kisses "Don't, don't," he

begged "Don't, I love you"

Suddenly Mrs Ewing came to the comprehension of what he said She

looked at his bent head--Jae look ca hiulf Nobody had ever seemed quite so far away in the world

as this boy with his cry of love to the woh to be his

e alone, it was her

disease, it was her sense of being done forever with anything like this

that gave her, as it were, a view of earth from outside, and yet she had

a sense of co She felt his tears on her

hand It did her good that anybody could love her so little as to be

able to stay by and see her suffer, and weep for her, and not rush forth

in a rage of misery like Thomas Gordon In a second, however, she had

command of herself She drew her hand away "Doctor Elliot," she said,

"you forget yourself"

"No, no, I don't," protested Ja

of you in that way I airl ht It is only because I love you I have never seen

anybody like you"

"You"I ah to

be your mother; I am ill unto death You must not lovehesitated "I have a ," she said in

a low voice "Can I rely upon you?"

"I would die before I told, if you said I was not to," cried Jaravely "A very serious

matter is involved, otherwise there would not be this secrecy I cannot

tell you what thewhich will

cure you of loving me"

"I don't want to be cured," protested James, "and I have told you it is

a love like worship, it is not--"

Mrs Ewing interrupted hi man is not to be