Show 0 a liThe The Woman Thou Gayest Me MeI I BEING THE STORY OF MARY ONEILL O'NEILL 1 Written by HALL CAINE I bt If IU II br by Mirite Hent M Matine Copyright In tn Or Oi at t Britain Copyright Wit 1911 br by J. J B. B Lt I O OG Co n l I LJ CHAPTER hAt was as a long lon long day ay of ol happi- happi e s. s It vB-s vB both very Ion long and very cry hort short for or it passed like a n dream f R Fed wonderful h happenings 8 were Crowded into it First the nurse from th the dh dizy ry heights eights o of her greater experience and anI superior knowledge indulged my infantile tile Ue anxieties by br allowing me mc to look on U Ii while baby was being b bathed thed and warded me for being good 11 b bi by i any praises of my ray baby's s beauty 10 nurs nursed d aman many a-many in in m my time b hp h said ad but but J I dont don't mind saying as asIve asIve Ive I've never had bad a R. bonnier babby on my flee nto I Look ok at her l logs now so white and plump and dimpled Have Havo you ever ever seen think Rny-think BO so putty ft I confessed that I nover never had haa and when ben nurse showed mo how to fix tho the binder binder and put on tho barrow coat without disturbing baby while whilo asleep I 1 I thought her a a. wonderful woman u. u I who had with difficulty been kept out of the tho room last laet ni night ht ff rand was now rushing rusbin breathlessly sl Ip up i h and downstairs wished to hold baby for forkl I kl I a 3 moment an and nna a at length lenth out oat out of ol f tho the t magnificence of my generosity I allowed tf her to todo do so sg only warning her as she ft loved her Jit life to hold nold tight and not let Jet bab baby fall faU L Howd Mowd you mean said tho the premature pre mature nature little litHe mother Mo Me let Jet Tier her u allf Not much 4 t Every hour ac according to the tho I doctor s 6 orders I gave e baby tho breast breMt 1 T L donot donot do not not know which was my greatest JOYt joy- joy t to feast my eyes oyes on her whilo while aho iho Bucked d and ad to see sec her little head nead fallback fall fallback Ib-ack Ib back with her little mouth open when hen H. H Ibo she bad had had bad enough or to watch I her er he stretched herself and hiccoughed hie- hie coughed and aud then grasped my thumb with t her little tight fin fingers r v. v Oh Ob tho the wild inexpressible delight of or oft orf orE f t E Every hour had bad its itA surprise E Every few m mii itc bad had their cause of won wonder r. r It rather ratier hurt me mc when baby cried And andl I dare say sar m my own foolish lip would woula drop at such moments but when I saw that there were were no cars ears in her eyes and imd she was a only calling for her ber f food od I 1 with nurse to let me mc g give ge e eb b her r the tho breast again J p The sun all da day long and though the holland hoJan window blin blinds bla s wore were hept down tp to subdue the the- light for m my myke i eake ke and perhaps for bab baby's s 's 1 I thought beautiful It m my room looked perfectly inight bo be poor and Bb shabby but flights of t. t angels could n not t have made it more moro heavenly than it was vas in my eves eyes then hIn In the afternoon nurse told toM mo roo I must tal take e some sleep p myself but I would not sleep until baby slept so soshe soshe she had bach to give gi mc me my cherub again and I sat at up UI and ana rocked her and for tor a awhile awhile while hile I sang sang sang-as as s softly as I could a could a little kittle little lullaby 7 It was a lullaby 3 J had learned at Semi from I he the Italian women in ill embroidered em broidered oi ord outside e stays who ho 80 so love lo their chil children and I knew t quito quite well that it bad had been written for tD R of all an Mothers who after he hie had bad been turner turned away from every ever door had been forced to take refuge refugo in ina ina a table j in Bethlehem I T was wa-s in such an lD ecstasy of f spiritual happiness that J i thu l thought ht i it no lie irreverence to change it a little and anil to sing it in iu my mj London lodging to ray my human child I S Sleep little bab baby 1 I love 10 thee I love lovo thee Sleep little little- lo queen I am om bending hending above c i thee I 1 dare ay nl my oi voice c was wa t sweet that d day day-a y-a y a mothers mother's voice is always alays sweet or for or when who had bad been J out of the room came back back to it with witha a a. look of awed solemnity f she said Well I never nover did I thought as vow ow ow there thera was a a an angel cl a como into this room I So So there is and hero here she is I taid ald u d. d beaming aming down on my sleeping child I But tho the long lanA short blissful da day came camo to io an end cad at J last st and nd when night fell feU felland tand and I dropped asleep there were two ames bames names of m mv dear ear ones on OD my lips Jip and if f ono one of or f them was the name or of of him who a a. a I thought was wag in heaven th the other othor was tho the name of her who was f 1 now lying in my ray arms I may have bave been poor but I felt felts s like a queen with all aU the riches of life I. I L in my little room I I may have havo sinned against the tho world and the tho church but I felt as if God had justified me by his own triumphant I law The whole feminine soul in mo me seemed to swell and throb and with my ray baby bab v at m my breast I wanted anted no more of earth or heaven I wa was still diU bleeding from the bruises es of late fate but T I felt healed of all my mv wounds loaded with benefits crowned I with rewards Four days das passed like liko Ibis his varied arie b bv visits from the tho doctor and my mr Welsh landlady Then my nurse began to talk I of leaving me mc r I did not care carl In m my i ignorance noran e of at mv my con aiton an and th tho greed of ol ni m my motherly moth erly ery love I was not sorry torry sho iho ho was wag going fo so soon noon n. n Indeed I was wag beginning to tobe be e jealous of her ber and was looking lookin forward for for- rard ward to in ha having my baby all aU to myself I But Dut nurse nunc as I remember was a little lit tie tic ashamed and tried to excuse her her- 1 lieI self If lilt I hadn't promised to nurse another an an- j other lady I T wouldn't leave you vou mane money c or or or no money monc said u But t Bl the tho girl meau meaning n is always al al- 1 ways here and 1 if she she she-isn't liko like a nurse she's hes and andy 4 Yes yes CS I shall be all aH right riCht r I answered On the fifth day my my nurse nUNO left mo me r. r nn shocking ho kin as that fact act seems Beems to me meI I now no I thought little of ot it then I I I was entirely happy I had nothing ii r. r In the world except my bab baby and and my ray i l baby ab had bad nothing in the tile word world ex except ept ine me mc I 1 was wa-s still in tho dun dungeon eon that y had seemed BO se G dreadful to nm mo me before before- the great dungeon of London to one who is is poor and friendless But no no matters matter I was no longer alone atone for there was ono one moro more inmate in my iny r prison house house my my child SIXTH PART L I am Lo Lost 1 I iI it f nothing to you yc that pass by MEMORANDUM BY MARTIN CON CON- RAD 4 I i hate to butt in where I 1 may mar not bo he wanted hut but if tho the remainder r of m my mr darlings darling's story tor is to bo be under understood tood I 01 1 1 t must say pay a what was happening in tho the meantime to me God od knows there was never a day daV on which i t did bot not think of my r dear dearone ono one at home bernie wondering w what trat was as happen happen- 11 f in ing to her and whether a certain dark fact which always la lay at tho the back ofray of my ray mind as as a n po possibility was actually coming to pass But Dut she he would be I r know th that t I quito quite well well and and I sa saw plainly that that If u uI I I r had to get through h the tho sti stiff job that was as before me mc I must put m my shadowy hadoW fears away and think only of the dan dangers 1 I was was' sure lUTe about The 1 first of these was that she ml might t ht suppose our ship was as lost Jost so 50 as soon as wo we had set up on old Erebus the tho wooden lattice towers which contained our Jon long I distance electric apparatus I tried to send her that first message from the Antarctic which was to say 53 wo we had not been shipwrecked It was Vas a thrilling moment Exactly at nt the stroke of midnight on January 21 while the mi midnight sun iun was shinin shining with its dull duH sullen glow tho the whole o or of our company h having vin gathered round the wireless man prepared to dispatch m my message c. c As we wore were not sure flure of our machinery I 1 had drawn up the words 1 to suit any auy anyplace anyplace place into which tho they mig might t fall fal if thc they missed their intended I dc destination South Pole Expedition safe All AU well wen Send greetings to dear ones one at home For or some somo fort forty seconds tho the sparks crackled out their snappy signals into tho crisp ni night ht air air and then the tho settled calm returned and and we e stood in in breathless breathless breath breath- less silence like beings on the tho edge of a world 1 waiting for the answer to como come as as' as from another r planet It came After a few minutes wo we heard from our magnetic detector the faint sound of ot the S 3 signals nals and nd then we wc broke into a great cheer It was not much but it was wag enough and while whiTe our scientific staff were con congratulating congratulating rat rat- themselves that electric wave telegraphy was Ino not inhibited by long Jong distance or b by the tho earths earth's curvature over ocr an au arc of a great circle I was 1 thinking o of my dear one that one that one way or another my rot message e would reach reaca her and she would be relieved Then in splendid health and spirits dogs dogs ponies panics and men all Al we Al-we we started on 00 our journey makin making a bce bee beeline line for the tho pole Owing to tho the heavy weights we had to transport our progress progress was slow stow much slower than we bad nad expected and though the tho going goin was fair and we kept a stead steady pace traveling a good deal at night it was not until the tho end of oC March that wo we reached Mount Darwin Dar win which I I. had fixed on for the second of our electric power stations By Bv this time winter was approaching the ni nights were be beginning inning to be dark and cold and the altitude feet was telling on some of us Nevertheless our second got finished about th the last week in April and aid again wo we gathered around not quite such a a. hearty bearty com company pan as before while the man spoke to the operator we had left on Erebus Again tain the electrical radiation went crackling into space an and again we gave a cheer wh when n the answer carne came back backall backall backall back back- all well a and d instruments in perfect order Then late lato a as it was wag we e began on the tho last Int stage of our journey journe which we wo knew would be a bard hard one Three hundred t geographical miles in in front temperature down Clown to minus fort forty degrees de do- grees the Mm sun several weeks gone one and nothing o us but thickening twi light cold winds snow the rare aurora and tho the frequent moon mOOD But t the tho worst fact was that our spirits wore low and and- do what I 1 would T to keep a good Rood heart and cheer up tho splendid who had como come with me I r could coul not help feeling the deepening effect of that sunless loom gloom In spite of this thi I r roke camp on April 25 anti and started straight a as a die dio for the te South It was a stiff fight over the upper glacier in latitude 85 with its razor shaped ice ice full of snow covered ered crevasses crevasses crevas crevas- ses and three days out two of our boat best boatmen men fell fen into one of tho worst of them I saw the thc accident from a dozen yards ards away and running up I Ja lay on my stomach and shou shouted ea down but out it was a black bottomless gulf ulf and not a sound or a sign came back Dack ack to me mc This s cast calt a still deeper gloom loom on our company who could not be cheered up up though I I kept telling them we should be on the great plateau soon please God and then theu we should have a a. clear road to the tho pole We were not much bettor better on to top though for the surface was muc much broken up and in that brewing place of the tho winds there thero seemed to be nothing but in scaR of cumulus cloud an and rolling rollinA waves of snow The polar march was waB telling on us badly We were doin doing no more than seven miles at a stretch So 80 to help m my shipmates to keep up their spirits spirits fanti and aud perhaps to lye a bit of a boise heise hoise to tomy tomy tomy my own I had had- to sing ning in all day long long long- though my darling is rl right ht that I have havo no more voice than a corncrake Sometimes I sang Ramsey Town because it did not want much music musIc but generally Sallys the gel cl for mo me J because it had fiad a rattling chorus The Themen Themen men mn all joined in scientific experts included in eluded clude and if the angels angels' took any heed of n us I think it must have havo touched them up to look down don on our little com corn pan of puny men BinA singing n away as wo we trudged through the snowy wilderness which makes makeR a a. man feel fee so 80 small But thit man can only do his best and as at Father Dan God bless his old heart used to say the an angels els can do no more moro We were making middling hard work of it it in the parallel with a temperature tempera tempera- ture as low loi as 10 50 degrees c of frost froat whon whoa a shrieking blinding blizzard came rame sweeping down own on on us from tho the south T I thou thought ht it it might blow itself out but it didn't so we camp in a board halt half circle building igloos snow huts I with their bucks buck Tike like rain beaten cattle cat cat- tIc tle to the thc storm torm There Ther we wo lay nine days days and and it is not worth while now no to say how much some of our men meu suffered luft red from frozen fingers and more from falling spirits Sometimes I heard hoard them saying in invoices invoices voices that were were- intended to be bo loud enough for me to hear bear it would have been boon better to have ha built winter quarters on on the thc north of Di Darwin and settle there until tho the return of summer Anti And at other times I T heard them countin counting tho the distance to the tho pole pole pole-a. a hundred geographical eo miles making twenty days das march at this season with the heavy weights wo we had to carry and tho dwindling of our dogs and ponies forwe Corwe for Cor we wo had killed a lot of them for food foed But Bitt ut I would not give ivo hc in for I felt feJt that to go back without finishing my job would break my heart and nd one day da when old Treacle said uNo No use UIO guv vJ nor lets let's give it host best r I flew at him like a a. hunted bunted ti tiger er All the same sanie me I T was more than a bit hit down myself for there were da days day when d death ath tins was cr very near and aud ono one ni night ht jf i really fenny broke broko me up to hear a big bis- strapping strapping strap strap- ping pill chap f ai saying 1 to tb tho man who shared hi his two nina n sack I l 1 t cue care a L whiff if it it Wll wasn't m l for th the wile J and the kiddies God knows I had my y own anch anchor r at home and sometimes it had a devil ofa ofa of ofa a tJ tug at inc me I fought myself hard though h and at nt last in my desire to RO JO ROand and my iny yearning to go o back to ni my dearone dearone dear dearone one I r made an awful proposal ouch u h as a ama aman aman ma man does not much liko liae to think of 01 after a crisis is over o Shipmates Shipmate I s said id it Hit exactly |