Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1901 — The Doctor's Dilemma [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Doctor's Dilemma

By Hesba Stretton

CHAPTER V. "Martin Dobree!” ejaculated both in «oe breath. "Tea, mademoiselles,” I said, uncoiling tbe tress of hair as if it had been a serpeat, "and going forward to greet them; "are yon surprised to see me?” "Surprised!” echoed the elder. "No; we are amased—petrified! However did ~so2-cat.h«!f‘e? When did you come?” “Quite easily,” I replied. “I came on Bunday, and Tardif fetched me in his own boat. If the weather had permitted I should have paid you a call; but you know what it has been.” "To be sure,” answered Emma; “and how is dear Julia? She will be very anxious about you.” “She was on the verge of a nervous attack when I I said; “that will tend to increase uer anxiety. “Poor, dear girl!” she replied sympathetically. “But, Martin, is this young woman here so very ill? We have heard from the Renoufs she had had a dangerous fall. To think of you being in Sark over since Sunday, and we never heard « word of it!” “Is that the young woman's hair?" “Yes,” I replied; “it was necessary to out it off. She is dangerously ill with fovor." Both of them shrank a little towards the door. A sudden temptation assailed me, and took me so much by surprise that I had yielded before I knew I was attacked. It was their shrinking movement'that did it. My answer was almost «8 automatic and involuntary as their ■•treat. “You see it would not be wise for any •f us to go about,” I said. “A fever breaking out in the island, especially now pou have no resident doctor, would be ♦ery serious.”

Thus I secured isolation for myself and «ay patient. But why had I been eager to do so? I could not answer that <tiou to myself, and I did not ponder over It many minutes. I was impatient, yet Strangely reluctant, to look at the sick girl again, after the loss of her beautiful Lair. The change in her appearance •truck me as singular. Her face before iad a look of suffering and trouble, makig it almost old, charming as it was; •ow she had the aspect of quite a young igirl, scarcely touching upon womanhood. We sat up again together that night, Tardif and I. He would not smoke, lest the scent of the tobacco should get in through the crevices of the door, and lessen the girl’s chance of sleep; but he held kis pipe between his teeth, taking an imaginary puff now and then, that he might keep himself wide awake. We talked to ane another in whispers. r-'Tell me all you know about mam'■elle,” I said. He had been chary of his knowledge before, but his heart seemed •pen at this moment. Most hearts are snore open at midnight than at any other Lour. ij,- ■ not much to tell, doctor,” he ♦nswered. ‘‘Her name is Ollivier, as I •aid to you; but she does not think she is any kin to the Olliviers of Guernsey : Bhe is poor, though she does not look ad ts she had been born poor, does she?” K JTJot in the least degree,” I said. “If Ihe is hot a lady by birth, she is one of the first specimens of Nature's gentle-1 folks I have ever come across. Has she Written to any one since she came here?” “Not to a soul,” he answered eagerly. “She told me she had no friends nearer than Australia. That is a great way •ft." “And she has had no letters?” I asked. “Not one,” he replied. “She has neither written nor received a single letter.” “But how did you come across her?” I Inquired. “She did not fall from the •kies, I suppose. How was it she came to live in this out-of-the-world place with pout” “I’ll tell you all about it, Doctor Martin,” he said, and he related how he had tnet the young lady in London. “Tardif,” I said, when he had concluded the recital, “I did not know what • good fellow you were, though I ought to have learned it by this time.” “No,” he answered, “it is not in me; It’s something in her. You feel something of it yourself, doctor, or how could you stay in a poor little house.Jike this, thinking of nothing but her, and not caring about the weather keeping you away from home? There was a curious thing —she had not any luggage with her, not • box nor a bag of any kind. She never fancied that I knew, for that would have troubled her. It is my belief that she has run away.”

“But who can she have run away from, VardifV” I asked. “Heaven knows,” he answered, “but £ie girl has suffered; you can see that y her face. Whoever or whatever she has run away from, her cheeks are white from it, and her heart sorrowful. I now nothing of her secret; but this I do know: she is as good, and true, and *weet a little soul as my poor little wife was. If she should die, it will be a great grief of heart to me. If I could offer my life to God in place of hers, I’d do it willingly.” "No, she will not die. Uook there, Tardlf!” I said, pointing to the door sill of the inner room. A white card had been •lipped under the door noiselessly—a signal agreed upon between mother Renouf •nd me, to inform me that my patient bad at last fallen-into a profound slumber, which seemed likely to continue some hours. The morning was more than half gone before mother Renouf opened the door •nd came out to us, her old face looking •aore haggard than ever, but her little •yes twinkling with satisfaction. "All goes well,” she said. “Your little mam'zelle does not think of dying yet.” I did not stay to watch how Tardif received this news, for I was impatient myself to see how she was going on. Thank heaven, the fever was gone, the delirium at aa end. The dark gray eyes, •penlng languidly as my fingers touched her wrist, were calm and intelligent. Bhe was as weak as a kitten, but that did not trouble me much. I was sure her natural health was good, and she would

soon recover her lost strength. I had to stoop down to hear what she was saying. “Have I kept quite still, doctor?” she asked faintly. I must own that my eyes smarted, and my voice was not to be trusted. I had never felt so overjoyed in my life as at that moment. But what a singular wish to be obedient possessed this girl! What a wonderful power of submissive self-con-trol! “I should like to see Tardif,” murmured the girl to me that night, after she had awakened from a second long and peaceful sleep. I called him and he came in barefoot, his broad, burly frame seeming to fill up all the little room. She could not raise her head, but her face was turned towards us, and she held out her small wasted hand to him, smiling faintly. He fell on his knees before he took it into his great, homy palm, and looked down upon it as he held it very carefully with tears standing in his eyes. “Why, it is like an egg shell,” he said. “God bless you, mam’zelle, God bless you for getting well again!” She laughed at his words —a feeble though merry laugh, like a child’s —and she seemed delighted with the sight of his hearty face, glowing as it was with happiness. It was a strange chance that had thrown these two together. I could not allow Tardif to remain long; but after' that she kept devising little messages to send to him through me whenever I was about to leave her. Her intercourse with mother Renouf was extremely limited, as the old woman’s knowledge of English was slight. It

happened, in consequence, that I was the only person who could talk or listen to her through the long and dreary hours. CHAPTER VI. My mother was lying on the sofa in the breakfast room, with the Venetian blinds down to darken the morning sunshine. Her eyes were closed, though she held in her hands the prayer book, from which she had been reading as usual the Psalms for the day. . Whilst I was looking at her, though I made no sort of sound or movement, she seemed to feel that I was there; and after looking up she started from her sofa, and flung her arms about me, pressing closer and closer. “Oh, Martin, my boy; my darling!’’ she sobbed, “thank heaven you are come back safe! Oh, I have been very rebellious, very unbelieving. I ought to have known that you would be safe. Oh, I am thankful!” “So am I, mother,” I said, kissing her. “You have come back like a barbarian,” she said, “rougher than Tardif himself. How have you managed, my boy? -You must tell me all about it.” “As soon as I have had my breakfast, mother, I must put up a few things in a hamper to go back by the Sark cutter,” I answered. “What sort of things?” she asked. “Tell me, and I will be getting them ready for you.” “Well, there will be some medicines, of course,” I said; “you cannot help me in that. But you can find things suitable for a delicate appetite; jelly, you know, and jams, and marmalade; anything nice that comes to hand. And a few amusing books.”

“Books!" echoed my mother. I recollected at once that the books she might select, as being suited to a Sark peasant, would hardly prove interesting to my patient. I could not do better thau go down to Barbet’s circulating library and look out some good works there. “Well, no,” I said; “never mind the books. If you will look out the other things, those can wait.” “Who are they for?” asked my mother “For my patient,” I replied. “What sort of a patient, Martin?” she inquired again. “Her name is Ollivier,” I said. “A common name. Our postman’s name is Ollivier.” ' “Oh. yes,” she answered; “I know several families of Olliviers. I dare say I should know this person if you could tell me her Christian name. Is it Jane, or Martha, or Rachel?” “I don’t know,” I said; “I did not ask.” The packing of that hamper interested me wonderfully; and my mother, rather amazed at my taking the superintendence of it in person, stood by me in her store closet, letting me help myself liberally. There was a good apuee left after I had taken sufficient to supply Miss Ollivier with good things for some weeks to come. If my mother had not been by I should have filled it up with books. “Give me a loaf or two of white bread,” I said; “the bread at Tardif’s is coarse and hard, as I know after eating it for a week.” "Whatever are you doing here, Martin?" exclaimed Julia’S unwelcome voice behind me.

“He has been living on Tardif’s coarse J fare for a week,” answered my mother; “so now he has compassion enough for his Sark patient to pack up some dainties for her. If you could only give him one or two of your bad headaches he would have more sympathy for you.” “Have you had one of your headaches, Julia?” I inquired. “The worst I ever had,” she answered. “It was partly your going ofiTin that rash way, and the storm that came on after, and the fright we were in. You must got think of going again, J shall take <fare~yoii don’t go after we are married.” Julia had been used to speak out as .ealmiy about our marriage as if it was no more than going to a picnic. It grated upon me just then; though it had been much the same with myself. There was no delightful agitation about the future that lay before us. We were going to set up housekeeping by ourselves, and that was all. There was no mystery in it; no problem to be solved; no discovery to be made on either side. There would be no Blue Beard’s chamber in our dwelling. We had grown up together; now we had agreed to grow old together. That was the sum total of marriage to Julia and me. I finished packing the hamper, and sent Pellet with it to the Sark office, having addressed it to Tardif, who had engaged to be down at the Creux Harbor to receive it when the cutter returned. I was in haste to secure a parcel of books before the cutter should start home again, with its courageous little knot of market people, I ran down to Barbet’s. I looked through the library shelves until I hit upon two novels. Besides these, I' chose a book for Sunday reading. Barbet brought half a sheet of an old Times to form the first cover of my parcel. The shop was crowded with market people, and as he was busy I undertook to pack them myself. I was about to fold the newspaper round them, when my eye was caught by an advertisement at the top of one of the columns. “Strayed from her home in London, on the 20th inst., a young lady with bright brown hair, grey eyes, and delicate features; age twenty-one. She is believed to have oeen alone. Was dressed in a blue silk dress, and sealskin jacket and hat. Fifty

pounds reward is offered to any person giving such information as will lead to her restoration to her friends, Apply to Messrs. Scott and Brown, Gray’s Inn Road, E. C.” I stood perfectly still for some seconds, staring blankly at the very simple advertisement under my eyes. There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that it had a direct reference to my pretty patient in Sark. But I had no time for deliberation then, and I tore off a large corner of the Times containing that and other advertisements,' and thrust it unseen into my pocket.

In the afternoon I went down with Julia and my mother to the new house, to see after the unpacking of furniture. I can imagine circumstances in which nothing could be more delightful than the care with which a man prepares a home for his future wife. The very tint of the walls, and the way the light falls in through the windows, would become matters of grave importance, but there was not the slightest flavor of this sentiment in our furnishing of the new house. It was really more Julia’s business than mine. I went about the place as if in some dream. The house commanded a splendid view of the whole group of the Channel Islands, and the rocky islets innumerable strewn about the sea. The afternoon sun was shining full upon Sark, and whenever I looked through the window I could see the cliffs of the Havre Gosselin, purple in the distance, With a silver thread of foam at their foot. No wonder that my thoughts wandered, and the words my mother and Julia were speaking went in at one ear and out at the other. Certainly I was dreaming; but which part was the dream? “I don’t belfeve he cares a straw about the carpets!” exclaimed Julia, in a disappointed tone. “I do indeed, dear Julia,” I said. She had set her mind upon having flowers in her drawing room carpet, and there they were, large garlands of brightcolored blossoms, very gay and, as I ventured to remark to myself, very gaudy. “You like it better than you did in the pattern?” she asked anxiously. I did not like it one whit better, but I sh'ould have been a brute If I had said so. She was gazing at it and me with so troubled an expression, that I felt it necessary to set her mind at ease. "It is certainly handsomer than the pattern,” I said, regarding it attentively; “very much handsomer.” “Julia, my love,” said my mother, “remember that we wish to show Martin those patterns whilst it is daylight. Tomorrow is Sunday, you know.” A little tinge of color crept over Julia’s tintless face. We then drew near to the window, from which we could see Sark so clearly, and Julia drew ont of her pocket a very large envelope, which was bursting with its contents. They were small scraps of white silk and white satin. I took them mechanically into my hand, and could not help admiring their pure, lustrous, glossy beauty. I passed my fingers over them softly. There was something In the sight sf them that moved me, as If they were fragments of the shining garments of some vision, which in times gone by, when I was mfich younger, had now and then floated before my fancy. I did not know

any one lovely enough to wear eat neat of glistening white like these, unles*-~ unless A passing glimpse of the pur* white face, and glossy hair, and deep grey eyes of my Sark patient flashed across me. “They are patterns for Julia’s wedding dress,” said my mother, in a low, tender tone. (To be continued.)

“LOOK THERE, TARDIF.”