Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1912 — In a Surgeon’s Coat [ARTICLE]

In a Surgeon’s Coat

By A. MARIA CRAWFORD

(Copyright, 19U, by AwooWd Utemry Fibmj

Hie cotillion was over and they found a table cosily screened with palms and orange trees in full blosflom. Tbere was a mound of lilies of the Talley on the white cloth. “It looks as if we must be filching ’ somebody’s happiness,” exclaimed Betty, "for the decorations around .here certainly indicate the expectation of a bride and groom.” “Gossip, that thing we all despise, yet to which we all listen, maintains that you are cast for the role and that Gregory Rhodes is to be your leading man.” “I know it," laughed Betty slipping a spray of the lilies through the turquoise and diamonds that held the laces at her breast. “It’s a funny thing how anxious people are to marry me off to somebody. You remember how Aunt Martha tried to persuade me to take the honorable Charles in the mountains two years ago.” “Indeed I do, and since that time I have never cherished any love for bar. You and I had euch great times together that summer. Lucky thing for me that you found my coat yesterday!" "It was a curious ircldent I didn’t have time to tell you all about it I wag running, sister Helen’s electric down a quiet street and there, in front of me, I saw a box. I stopped, picked it up and imagine my surprise when I read Dr. Robert Latimer, Townsend building.” “The messenger must have dropped it God bless him!” “Of course I don’t know a thing about this town, so I asked a policeman to direct me to your office building. I was curious to know whether or not you were the Dr. Latimer I knew. Why don’t you eat?” demanded the girt “See all these good things that footman brought!” “I am so glad to look at you again and to hear the sound of your voice that I have forgotten my hunger?*--“When I went into your office and saw all those patients lined up I knew that I couldn’t wait my time, for I was due at a luncheon in less than an hour, so when your attendant opened the door and called ’Next!* I gave him my card and asked if I might see you for just a minute —” “And I heard your voice and came out in a hurry. It was a great thing for me to have you of all people find that surgeon’s coat" ' ' • “What is a surgeon’s coat?" “A white coat I wear when I operate in my office. I dare say I look like a butcher.” “Helen says you are eminently successful and rank with the best old surgeons here. lam so glad. I have so often wondered about you.” *1 wrote to you several times after I left the mountains.” “I never received the letters.” “No,” he said, “because I was aftaid to post them. Your sister had married and come here to live, and everywhere I turned I heard that you and Gregory were engaged, and knowing that broken hearts are beyond my skill to mend, I tried to forget you.’ - - Betty looked pensive and the young surgeon resumed: “If it had not been for my worldly knowledge of w,hat a girl in your position wants these days. I would have asked you to marry me that last night in the mountains. You remember how we walked up to Paradise Rock and a sudden storm came on and we took refuge under a big tree?” The jewels on Betty’s breast flashed as tha laoes rose and fell with her uneven breathing. “Yes,” she answered softly. “When the lightning played about us and the thunder boomed like giant 0H55118 through the mountains, you were frightened and I—l held you In , toy arms.” r “I was not frightened then.” He looked at her curiously. “Betty,” he said, “if you had only known how much greater was the storm going on in my breast I wanted you so, and now —” “I wish 1 had known," whispered the girl just as Gregory Rhodes came through the opening in the palms. “Well, you gave me a deuce of a slip tonight, Betty, but I see you found the place 1 intended for you anyway.” Dr. Latimer pushed back his chair. “Oh, sit down, Doc, I’m not stopping. 1 was just looking around to find out if Betty had what ste wanted. I’ll he around to your office tomorrow to interview you professionally. I need treatment Betty jilted me this afternoon.” “Why, Gregory, you have always known that I—4—” stammered the embarrassed girt “You did it nicely enough, as nicely as a thing like that can be done. I don’t mind talking before Doc Lat- ; fmor,” said Gregory, with his air of. easy familiarity. “He’s one of ,my best friends. I had this place all fixed up, for I expected to propose to Betty here again tonight, but the fates willed ft otherwise.” _ , “Perhaps,” interrupted the surgeon. “Miss Betty prefers that I should not be told," 1 “I don’t mind. Of course Gregory doesn’t feel all this pretended grief or he would not parade it before any“Our families fixed up the match TMr . i thought Betty meant to

take me until this afternon when I •had her out sleighing and asked her to name the day. Then she said, ‘I don’t expect to marry you, Gregory. I’m old-fashioned enough to want to be in love, foolishly in love with the man I marry.’ It’s hard on me, for' people will say—" “Only your pride is hurt, Gregory,” said Betty. “Have it your way. Your sister Helen is looking for you. I’m going now.” “May I see you tomorrow night? I must, Betty.” ‘Til have to tell a fib, for we have a dinner on at Carey’s and a dance somewhere afterward, but I’ll manage to have a headache and stay home,” she promised. Some time during the day a patient found occasion to say, “I saw you with Miss Betty Gaines last night. I suppose you know that she jilted Gregory Rhodes to marry a titled foreigner who arrives in New York tomorrow? She met him abroad this summer.” So Betty had been leading him on by the look in her eyes the night before. He bit savagely into his cigar, thankful that the dear old gossip had intervened to save his pride. It was a very charming Betty in a soft—clinging white gown, shorn, of her jewels, a single blush rose on her breast, who greeted the surgeon. For a time he sat silent, afraid to trust his own voice. He glanced at the girl, her whole figurte bathed in the ruddy glow from the fire. She seemed a priestess of the dawn to Latimer and he set his teeth and tried to think of some commonplace topic, but his brain had gone wrong, he concluded, and he waited for her to speak. “Has it been a hard day? Are you very tired?" she asked quietly. The note of sympathy stirred his anger. “No,” he flung out, “work, why, I work as if my task were made for me. Work is the one thing in life on which a man may confidently depend. It is the only thing that never falls him at a crucial time.” “Why this sudden and vehement bitterness, Bob?" He had not heard her call his name for two years and the sound of her voice calling him thus, stirred the strings of his heart, but failed to set them In tune with her gentler spirit “Men have their work; women, nothing but amusement, which is usually found In making those same med fools at one time or another. I never loved but one woman and I loved her because I thought she was honest and true.” “Are you talking about me, Bob?” Betty's eyes were dark with fire. “Today,” he said, ignoring her question. “I have heard from two of yous sister Helen’s best friends that you are engaged to a nobleman who is to arrive in New York tomorrow. Yet last night you. allowed me to make a fool of myself. It hurts, Betty.” “Have you no faith in me? Will you believe the sickly gossip of Idle women in preference to the truth from the woman you claim to love?” “1 love you, Betty. The dream of you has helped me fight and in a measure —win. When I found you again, and you were not married, my love flared up into a consuming passion. You are the only thing I want in this world. Do you mean, can you mean,” he asked, Incredulously, his brain whirling at the look in her face, “that you are not going to marry that foreign devil?” He leaned over her chair, looking deep In her eyes. “Betty,” he said; “Betty, do you love me?” He lifted her to her feet. “Is —is that surgeon’s coat big enough for two?” “Yes,” he whispered, his lips at her white forehead, “and the pocket’s big enough for Cupid.”