A Day of Fate

I had seen enough company for one day. My sleep that night resulted from opiates instead of nature's impulses, and so was unrefreshing, and the doctor

licable buoyancy which that chief of earthly hopes imparts was gone, I sank into an abyss of despondency from which I feared I could never escape. Her wisdom and intuitive delicacy led her to select Reuben as her chief assistant. I found his presence very restful; for, so far f

at at this late season only a florist could supply. The pleasure they gave was almost counterbalanced by the pain. Their exquisite

unfortunate attachment. As thee said, she is not to blame, and yet such is her kindly and sensitive nature that she suffers quite as much as if she were wholly to blame. Her life almost depends on thine. She is growing pale an

must despise me! If you bu

I've not a word to say; but thee should know the truth. As Emily said, thee h

this unmanly, contemptible weakness, I ought to die, and

ossible, I gave my whole thought to recovery, and was as solicitous as I before had been apathetic

my food with scrupulous regularity; and in the effort to oxygenize my thin pale blood, drew long re

e began to move steadily and at last rapidly toward the g

e richer coloring that came into the life at

ppiness of this home?" I thought. "It woul

per-my first love-was daily read, and my

y remedy. Men are respected only as they stand on their

ne who had passed with her through peril, and who seemingly had been dangerously ill in consequence; but I was compelled at last to see that her regard was not open, frank, and friendly, but shy, absorbing, and jealous. It gave her unmingled satisfaction that I did not ask for

s, and I think that even Adah was so blinded by our manner that her suspicions were allayed. It evidently puzzled her, and Reuben also, that I had apparently lost my interest in one who had such great attractions for me at

an to fear that she was inclined to give me a regard which I

hat his heart is akin to the stony idol in material, and his nature like that of the gross, cruel divinity represented. The vanity that can feed on such food has a more depraved appetite than the South Sea Islander, who is content with human flesh merely. It would seem that

g them as spider-like monsters that, were the doctrine of transmigration true

that I was not a saint; but I am glad that it caused me pain, and pain only, as I saw Adah shyly and almos

anner, and as I look back upon those days I thank God that I was never so graceless and brutal as to show or feel anything like contempt for her gentle, childlike preference. Very possibly also my own unfortunate

self with Emily Warren, who was not only richly endowed but highly cultivated; at any rate her small vanity had vanished also, and she was in contrast as self-distrustful and hesitating in manner as she formerly had been abrupt and self-asserting. Moreover she had either lost her interest in her neighbor's petty affairs, or else had been made to feel that a tendency to gossip was not a captivating trait, and we heard no more about what this one said or that one wore on her return from meeting. While her regard was undoubtedly sincere, I felt and hoped that i

t in such quiet, manly strength as to change Miss Warren's sympathy into respect only, I felt that I would achieve a victory that would be a source of satisfacti

ask how I was when Adah was present; and the latter was honest enough to tell me that it was Miss Warren who had suggested some of the si

elected them, thee ca

ly replied, looking directly into her eyes, "since I

erence in friends," s

f I had been talking to Zillah; "and your mother

her reading in a girlish, plaintive voice tha

stories were often formidable obstacles, and she would look up apprehensively, and color for fear I might be laughing at her; but I took pains to gaze quietly through the window in serene unconsciousness. She also stumbled because her thoughts evidently were often far away from her book, but at my cordial thanks when finishing the story her face would glow with pleasure. And yet she missed something in my thanks, or else saw, in the quiet manner with which I turne

t seemed as if my very soul were already wedded to her. "The tho

ul though unconscious ally, and I lured her into my room by innumerable stories. Reuben and Mr. Yocomb were now very busy in their harvest, and I saw them chiefly in the evening, but they were too tired to stay long. Time often hung wof

busy. The forenoon had wellnigh passed. I had exhausted every expedient to kill time, and was looking on the landscape shimmering in the fierce sunlight wit

hat I thought I might help you pass an hour or two. It s

resence-felt that every drop of blood in my body had rushed into my face.

gan awkwardly. "I don't want to make trou

l the morning. She's teaching me how to cook. I've succeeded in proving that the family would

said eagerly. "Am I to ha

t. Dr. Bates would

ghed with her I felt ill and faint. Despairingly, I thou

We shall give yon a welcome that ought to make any man

ained tone. "I'd much rather slip quietly in

has happened that you must let them express their abounding gratitude in

o. Why, Hiram, their man, could not have done less. I merely happened to be here. It's all the other

ink that between some of our friends the question of repay

e so much fo

than I ca

if I ever write another paragraph

the color deepening again in her cheeks. "If you hadn't-if

I said quietly, "I a

dship; to tell you what I have not told any one except Mrs. Yocomb. I feel as if I had

or alarmed her; but feeling that she had gone too far, s

ght. He's been absent, an

m a blow, and with her face full

rallied sufficiently to say, in a voice that I

ou. I trust you m

an. "I would be if I s

become sane and rational. Haven't you given that up yet? I shall

s away. "Let me read to you," she said abruptly. "I brought with me Hawt

often," I said, nerving

, and varied with the thought as if the words had been set to music. At first I listened with delight to hear my

ied to look as stoical as an Indian chief who is tortured on every sid

not enjoy

: "Nothing but the truth will answ

ar something else?" she ask

after a second's hesitation, I spoke out despairingly: "Miss Warren, I may as well recog

e into her eyes, and sh

eparture that it se

amount of stimulant that Dr. Bates would never have prescribed; but it had little effect.