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Show I LOVE and MARRIED UFA I fcu, the noted author j j Idah MSQlone Gibson g THE AFTERMATH. But I dldn t do It. I didn't do It!" n I shrieking voice exclaimed. 1 Of tuna, vnu didn't do It. dear '.f I course, you didn't do It. It was a mo- I tor accident," .-aid Alice with her arms I around me. I ' Was thnt I speaking'" I a-d; I Alice in surprise I "Doctor, you must do something for I her. The shock has been too much." I Quietly I disengaged myself from I Allco'n arms. I "Where have they taken John'.'" I I askrt. 'Both your husband and Hiss Mojre-land Mojre-land have been taken to Starr' I dcrtaklng Establishment, ' fa Id 1 doctor. I laughed! "Oh. don t let her do that! Don't lot her do that!" exclaimed Alice , For answer, the doctor inserted a hypodermic needle In my arm. I felt the sharp prick of pain and said. "I io not noed that doctor " "Then you will lie down on this sofa. Mrs Gordon, and see if you can rest." I did as he told me. but with the thought surging through my brain that even In death fate had conspired to keep my husband and Elisabeth Moreland together As I grew calmer, mv thought weni ha ok to the afternoon Just a few ho ;rs ore Then John had said. V, hi-n we move Into the new home, 'Girl w y 3 shall have that happiness of trhleh we IHJ I have dreamed " Oh, 1 am fo glad i- he aid it :o me! I am so glad he r Ilitfr meant it. for I know he meant It! Fvf-v Ani 1 am BO gild, that If he know, anything at ail Over There beyond tju r j wall of vlaionlng, he knows that I did Efi4Jl not mean It the other day when I f ' liH wished I wished Oh. no. no. I never ; ,JS could haved wished that Jonn be jjBHS dead! It is so terrible' I want him gBBp I want him back Mary will never tfjj knov he rather the new house will I nean nothing, unless : h said we. HJ car j r ilong together in It." I Ire you the ba by Is all rl -yj I asked Miss Parkei suddenly, as I jfaH roused myself from the drowsiness of the drug which the doctor had given VeHY me. 1 looked into the pitying la. H of Alice and tho .professional one HT "Yes. yes," they mm almost in nr.- H son. "Go to sleep. Go to sleep " HHH Merciful sleep soon placed hCl gen- hHH He fingers on my weary eyelids an'.i It was weeks before I -zaln woke to a knowledge of my surroundings. 'The only thing you seemed 'to wan? to do," said Alice to me. "after you , came out of that attack of brain r irei was to write in that little book which you have kept so Jealously from n of us. The strangest part of It all was, however. Katherlne, that you kept writing over and over and over again everything that happened on that tragic night, which, of course, at the time, we thought you did not understand. un-derstand. You kept Writing it over and over after you wrote it first In tho book and you called me to you and read It, asking me If that was )USt what happened. Again and again you wrote It, day after day through all those weary weeks and again ind sgain vou Insisted on reading n to me and asking If that was Just whit happened. "Over and over vou reiterated the words. 'I didn't do It. I didn't do II Vou know I did not do it don't you? I And then you would say, 'Door John," and sit for a Ions time looking into vacancy and at last vnu would whisper M r pityingly Tour Ellsabi Ih We t I HW all nearly eraz about yon.'' All e HHVi said "And I think if it hand't been ir for Karl we wouia nave given up nop. many times and decided you would never come Into your right mind again "From the moment that he came Into the room. Katherlne " said Alice, "he seemed to exert a peculiar calming calm-ing Influence over you, although you did not .recognize him as Karl 9hep-ard. 9hep-ard. A peculiar thing about the matter, mat-ter, howevor, was' that you never showed him what you had written and were writlnc day after day. 1 was the only one you made a confidant of., although ' never seemed, to Knov me by name. But whenever Kail would come to where you were sir- , lng you would look up Into1 H his face and say 'It's all H right now. isn't it Its all right '" and H he would answer. Yes. Katherlne. It Is all right!' B "And you at times would turn away, i H but If I were standing near you would I say "You see It's all right I did not' do it.' H "You never seemed to get over H thinking that your wish was not fath- H or to the deed. But toward the last, j H longer Intervals would elapse between the times when you would write out JV again the horrible expcilences of that HJ I' night, and even f ymi did. as you H handed the written pages over to me H with a sigh, you would say, "It's all H right now. be says It's all right now.' " I katiii:kim: s illness H I must have been a great worry to H my friends all those months that my j H mind was wandering about in "No H Man's Land." In fact. It seems that H every one gave up, one after apoth r H Helen and Bobby were first to Insist H that I would never again recognize 1 H those about me. Ruth and ecn Cous- I H In Charles, finally, came to the sanu fl conclusion. Alice held out longer than HH any one else, but never for one mo- , 'JB ment would Karl allow anyoni t" I HH that I would not In time come hack to a knowledge of myself and those Alice told me that Karl said to her "iio nlRht. 'I'erhaps no one knows MH but me the delicate adjustments of IHJ Katherlne's mind. Why, when I " UJ HH in Egypt, did you know, Alice, that HH we talked to each other'' She always raHJ knew when I was writing her a letter. and astl was writing I could see Hit as plainly as I do you now. and I al-1 ways knew what she wax doing." "I lohl Karl," said Alice, "about you , HH telling me of this wonderful experience . m , you hafi with Mm. and thai you read Bj pv to no- the last letter he cvci wroti BBb to BBb "Do you realize, Alice." he said. BBV "Just what that letter meant? Do I 4 you realize the Impelling force that was behind that message that made BB me tell Katherlne that I knew she going to be In trouble and not to wor-BBl wor-BBl ry, that I would be with her" Just 1 stop tor a moment and think there J I was I away out thore on the Nile I : was In Egypt then, and without any V thyme or reason something within me 3 said . Katherlne needs you. Kather- iH lne needs you. you must go to Kather- BBl Inc.' Of course like a sane twen tieth century man that 1 was. I laughed at myself, called myself all sorts of a silly ass, but the though' ctill stuck in my mind to the ezclu slon of everything else I could hear j nothing, think nothing, except 'Kath- , erlne needs you, Katherlne needH you, I you must go to Katherlne.' And at h lat. BOVejl while 1 berated mvself us j the banner fool of Christendom i I wrote that letter to Katherlne, and 'I sturted home. I had no Idea of what J her trouble would be. I knew only I that she was culling me, calling m, I i lier with a force that waa Irresistible BH And, Alice. I sometimes think that BV although she uncnsclously sent her H mind to me In that agonizing oall, J vet the very effort she madp to do this, has helpud to stretch the thread H of consclousnoes to euch a strenuous i length that It.-? retallcnce Is gone and we must wait, patiently pulling that consciousness back Inch by Inch, until I sho knoWa again." 'The most awful part of It all, Katherlne Kath-erlne said Alice, "was the fact that you did not even know your baby. When Miss Parker would bring her to I you. ou would nurse her without , any particular emotion and you showed Complete indifference to any Interest In h-1 the moment she was ot of your : sight. "We. couldn't call your predicament a loss of memory, because you remembered re-membered absolutely every word, ev n y action that was heard or seen by you that nlchi. Anil .vou told it With a Circumstantial directness that i made a cold shudder run down my pine. "At last, however." said Alice, "I came to accept Karl's theory, because a word here and there would show me that your consclousnens.. or whatever vc might call soul, was coming com-ing back to you. Karl would not hear of you being sent to a sanitarium and Miss Parker, who seemed to have become- very much attached to you, aided audi abetted him We had Just about decided de-cided that we were to take a doctor, a couple of trained nurses, Miss Parker Park-er the h-.h. and myself and go with j you for a long cruise on Karl's yachl when I came In that morning and saw the lbrht of reason and recollection In j our c y I "And then, strange us It may seem. lh memory of that awful nlgiu passed out of your mind, and as Miss Parker came Into the room you looked up and said. 'Is the baby better this morning? morn-ing? She had presence of mind enough however, to say. 'Yes, Mrs. Gortl on. the baby is all right this morning Win n I came In Miss Parker whimpered whim-pered to me hurriedly. There has been a change in Mrs. Gordon, she's forgotten all about her husband's death Her mind has gone back now to the' Illness of the baby on that night.' Of course. 1 was horribly fright- encdi because I fell that If vou again hid to go through the telling of! John's tragic death, It would kill you. I went in. however, and you greeted me as though you had Just s -en me the day before For the fir.t time in months, you recognised me and : called me by name, and mentioned that John must have gone out early that morning- I didn't know v.hut to say to you, bjt linally got up courage enough to -sk. Katheilne, did you know that Karl Bhepard Is home'''" CON 11 ESOjkxCJK, "You looked up In surprise, ' con- , tinned Alice. "Yes. I remember. I remember, how otieerly jou looked a; or a 'Hi ask"d me that question." 1 said. "I thought it was strange that Karl Bhepard could have come home during the night because I remembered the lef-tei lef-tei which 1 h id received from him 00 what I thought was the day before, be-fore, saving that he was coming soon. And, I remember, you said "I'm going go-ing to ihe telephone, Katherlne, and ask EL rl to pome over and see you.' "1 vas surprised at first at this' .mi i said Why sureb you win wait. until I am dreMed, Alice," and then , 1 realised that I Was very weak. I foupd It Impossible to raise myself to' a -itting posture. Have I been ill?" I asked, as 1 1 looked at my almost transparent bands, ami v.pndered how I could have grown no thin in twenty-four hours. Buddenly another thought came to me. T T . . . . . Km... T W 111 ilU.1 T asked. You have been III. several months my dear, You had an at-tack at-tack of bruin fever and your rccov-' cry haa been very slow.' she said, hesitatingly. I looked about me In astonishment.' "I am not still at the hotel " ' "No, dear, we took you to the hos- pllal ar.d then we thought OU would have a better chance to recover in youi own home." Then i began to recognize my mother's moth-er's beautiful old furniture , which 1 had Intended to use in my own room. , "How long have I been here?" lj asked. ' About a month. We had planned to put you on the yacht next week." 'Has Karl been here all Oie time?": "All the time, my dear. I have never seen In all my life such devotion devo-tion as Karl Fhepard has paid to I you." "Where s John? I asked. Alice Instead of answering. said "I'm going to telephone for Karl." I As she went out the room I noticed ttiat she was In deep mourning, when I she came buck. I asked Is Madam Gordon dead?" I asked. ' No. dear, mother Is well." "But you're In mourning, Alice. Someone very near and dear to you Is gone. Don't tell me that It Is Tom, your husband." 'Tom will be up to .see you thrtu evening." tald Alice with a smile I caught my breath sharply. "Tell I Ml Parlter to bring In my baby ' I had to have ocular evidence that Alice was not mourning for Mary In a moment Mis.s Parker brought I in the little cooing smiling, dainty little bundle. "Oh, :he has grown so beautiful. I made a gnat effort to lift my arms for her but I cn.uld not do so. And then I had the Ineffald. bliss of knowing that my baby had not forgotten me She aim Oft sprang mi; f Miw Parker's nrtm. and vvitn those Inarticulate love words, that only a mother can translate, nhe burrowed! her little head in my neck Hold her up to mo' Hdd her where I can kiss her," I said In doing sn one of her tiny naked feet pressed against my mouth, and upon them my kisses fell quick and fast "Doesn't John think she is the mos beautiful thing In the world?" I asked As I mentioned John, something scorned to snap In my brain, and for a moment a queer sort of hase seemed to overcome me, "Wait, wait." I said, "lot me think " Miss Parker came and look ths baby away Alice lifted me up In her arms. "Don t try to think, dear, it will all come back to you later." But 1 must think, I must think. 1 can't atop thinking. I.ct.i see. I went to the telephone and I0DK0M laid tlur-v- had been an automoliile accident acci-dent In a little while, Alice, you and tho doctor came and he said he Maid ih. my Oodl 1 remember now, he said that John and Elisabeth were dead." TO BE I pNTINTJIED |