Show HER OWN GRASPING HAND ar it K X X j X st by GRACE S REID 0 by short story pub cu it you possess a mean niggardly spirit read lead this allia zing co confession lifes antl and profit by it HAD passed through the hie happiest I 1 time of my illy alf life no iny its as a nurse muse in the lie new york hospital I 1 had had illy ci first cull call a caba of Inel incipient plent typhoid fever lit at the llotd hotel the patient wits was 11 young oung girl ate are you of the van thorps of at al bany asked tier mother na its site she ecil ili mr u critically utter after ii hearing earing mi lily name I 1 had the honor of telling iter her 1 I was of that hut but in reduced stances I 1 hail had lieen engaged us as a duy day nurse but my illy ill tits wei e never auy lu own 1 wits supposed to lime imbibed duill clent cleat outdoor air before coining to vist list my illy stay sta I 1 wits expected to lift luy illy charge bodily tn its and lid out or of be bid I 1 a sizable bl able modern built girl of silencer physique thieu my iny own ilea I 1 lt leh fl slie lie thanked me hie for lily care caie b by it aliat liat on oil tit lie check I 1 wr ant rit out of tile tha hotel reeling feeling us its if tile the cut of 1113 ii ill lilun unell ulster shut tile me off film any un say in list world footsore sore and heay heavy hearted I 1 mad m de mi illy way to tle tile roeln in III fifteenth street ahert I 1 kept my trunk tit und I 1 which was to serve tile me us its a breathing place between engagements I 1 liall no ila sooner reached it than I 1 recel u peremptory summons aun unous from tile lios hos and in ili less than an hour wits mid on oil mj illy wily with a doctor it to new ko ito chelle half an hours ride from the city the family to which you ou are going said my lily companion fia cu the train con n blots of mother und and son the mother Is the pneumonia patient I 1 am not hot tier lier physic physician laii lie he Is ill I 1 uni am a substitute let iet tile me warn you ion not hot to bo be biow brow benten benlOn out of your lour regular prie pike e mrs mi a right Is notorious for lier liei pur par but she Is very lery wealthy tier her son so la 18 11 bluni fellow she lias has the shackles on him I 1 can tell you she dolis doles out ills his money as it if lie hu were it 11 schoolboy 11 1 I recognized the sun the moment I 1 laid my eyes on oil him ile he was MIS it inadi cut cul student tit at the vanderbilt college during in ili six months service at tho hospital which wis was a requisite to any an front the new yo ork rk hospital I 1 had seed been hini him frequently na its it a rhia klans it ills fuce still clerical spectacled Is 14 beaure me hie now ns I 1 looked upon it when lie he met me hie at his door as aa I 1 was destined to look upon it a few months later inter heaven pity pit tile me 1 on tile the cover coer of a notorious blue pim ahlet which at that time was tile the chief attraction of the city news sti stands mils whatever tits his mothers stinginess ss lie it never let me feel it I 1 lilt had curte carte blanche for all tile the appurtenances of the sickroom my patient poor soul was as do elle die a creature as ever a nurse nur se handled handie aled she responded to my ni care caie I 1 in n i wily way that thrilled me with it n sense of blower pow er she bhe was too sick to consider the ex IL pense penie about tier her but she gave ne me hie a curious inkling of tier her character ifer her son on had been assisting me one evening with some alterations in the bed I 1 was kneeling on it a bot oot benali at its side A hospital cited il dangled over tier her bioni a ribbon round my neck slie site was drowsing and tier lier right land hand closed round th the medal so bo that I 1 could not remove it adrian wright looked at me hie with an ironical smile I 1 thought though unkind took a quarter of a dollar from ills vest pocket find and rubbed it slowly over oer his fits mothers hand site she dropped the medal and seized upon the quarter without rousing another day those greedy fingers held field a lozenge in a dutch that hut flat bened it out its as if it had been pounded next they crushed my thermometer at it time when I 1 was eagerly tiling filling ou out t my lily bedside notes for or the doctor witt with II a record of decided improvement in temperature the bedroom tied had no egress but through a u room on each side of it one of these a dressing room opened on oil the inabin hall of the liou house se the other which lind been arranged fur for tay lay sleeping ble room opened on oil a back hull hall and staircase I 1 returned that way ay und mid wits startled to hear biear sirs airs wryght right speaking in it a loud voice 11 sly my byl boy I 1 my boyl boy I 1 I 1 heard her bet say cant you trust your mother you know it is for your our good in ili tit the end angry with tier son for bringing up money matters and disturbing her lin proved condition I 1 was about entering the room to use luy authority when lie answered her quietly what lie said I 1 did not hear but she began to repent repeat after him film immediately the psalm for the silk sick I 1 look for or the lord I 1 look tor for the lord my soul doth wall wait for or him my bly soul doth wait for him in his hl word la Is my trust the mother did not hot res respond poud in his fits word Is my trust adrian repeated in tile the gentlest voice in tit the world but ills fits mother was sleeping I 1 sat on the age f my bed facing the iho crick crack rif it my lily door which led into the bedroom all and had been pushed to As tile sick woman be came I 1 baw Ad adrian rise take ir till unused box of slee sleeping pInit low low ders front from the table by tile tho bod bed and go softly ahtes the dressing room lie emptied the contents of tile lie papers il into tto un an nud and replaced tile with a powder from a bottle which lie had anken out of ills his pocket it will lie be remembered that on ills his trial lie he was ut at first supposed to have procured at a college lecture the opiate for tile the crime of which lie he wash was convicted stay tile thu heavenly father whose thoughts of mercy are greater titan than we cuu can conceive have mercy upon such as I 1 who showed nu no mercy I 1 when adrian tied had replaced the tin box of powders on tile the table lu ili tile the bedroom ile ha went for au an instant through tho dr dressing eIng room luto into the main hall in that instant I 1 secured tile the plundered box with his prayer in my ears as the blasch blasphemy only of a hypocrite I 1 retraced my lily steps to the village I 1 went to a drug store across the street from the one where the prescription had bacen filled will you tell me the nature of these powders po dera I 1 asked the druggist smelt and delicately tested tasted paper after paper looked at me hie quizzically and retired with the box to the enil end of the store ile ho came back smiling Wh whether etler I 1 falsini or self right bous I 1 cannot tell lie he said but nothing but hour flour are you going to deceive a hypochondriac kindly keep them thein till I 1 call for them thein I 1 answered I 1 took tho the box and renewed tile the prescription tit nt the die opposite drug store I 1 homo home lining leaving tile seeds or of suspicion which secured the death sentence of adrian wright suspicion which I 1 after afterward ivard in ili vain endeavored tofil to silence lence adran adrians s defense upon ills his trial was that the physician attending ills his mother wits was a stranger who lid did not understand tier her constitution that lie he himself seriously disfavored the administration to her of opium mid and to avoid con troverse tio tro versy had flour tor for the opiate which lie denied giving and which lie claimed cla lilie to have burned I 1 had come up weary to new rochelle uncertain of any illness fitness for my profession I 1 had had there a delightful vision of success ahad undergone a cruel shock I 1 longfe longed to be away I 1 retired feared I 1 knew not hot what as s if my lily nursing find linked her to my emotions that evil duy day of my iny discovery my lily patient suffered a relapse the doctor coining in ili found tier her breathing painfully apparently from froin tier her old asthmatic trouble ile he decided to relieve tier her with a single drop of morphine adrian was not hot present tile the doctor charged his morphine needle examined the sick woman carefully thought tier her easier promising to call again when lie he had made other visits and lie kept tits his promise alast mille 11 he was away ills hla patient had fallen into a I 1 profound sleep front from which it had been impossible to rouse tier her tier her labored bre breathing thing echoed through the house she liall sufficiently overcome her attack 0 of pneumonia to have already sat upsel eral times miles the doctor ordered her now to he be walked up and down the room we struck those poor bent beat shoulders shoulder with wet towels we W plied piled hot water to those nerveless feet just slipping over oer jordan wo we strove to arrest their going with oxygen and an electric battery all in vain the unfortunate woman died it was waa proved of opium poisoning yet among ills visits the doctor had I 1 lust st ills morphine needle front from its case it had not been applied to tier her the sleeping powders were untouched as I 1 had bru brought tight them from froin the drug store and adrian after the opportunity I 1 had given him by my lily return to the village of using ills his envelope of poison had sat for two hours at ills his mothers side silently watching lier her pass pa as from life to eternity As I 1 saw him lit 11 lavish every tenderness upon tier her tit alio 0 murk mark of self control control fallen fallah from ills his face I 1 could have screamed aloud 1 I 0 only illy 1 I knew tile secret of the powders for ten years I 1 have been the unworthy yes es with all my illy heart and life at his command still unworthy wife of adrian wright weight when the sentence of death was wa pronouns pronounced unc d upon ailin to silence my frantic solicits collel a eions ills mothers moth cis body wits dis disinterred n for reexamination examination re that close right hand of hers which lind find looked so pathetic in tier lier coffin had somewhat relax relaxed etl in ili a muscular convulsion after death in ili its palm was the lost morphine needle her restless lingers fingers halt had found I 1 it where the doctor had forgotten it a on n tile table by the bed A crack was in it where her unlit tight hold had crash crushed ed it the break had made n tiny opening in the thermometer wound for tit the e morphine to enter her sun son was right about the effect of narcotics upon tier her she tied tied died by tier her own grasping hand in humiliation und and thank thanksgiving I 1 write this confession for my phildren children |