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Show II IIOVE and MARRIED LIFE ! i Buj. the noted author 9 : Idao MGlone Gibson J . . . ... . j JOHN SEES A NEW LIGHT, j , Before Hannah reached me, they ! told mo afterward, I had become un- conscious and I was mercifully spared i all the details of my mother's funeral. ! My first conscious moment came the 'pwf" uext evening when 1 heard John. Alice ' and the doctor talking. "I do not quite understand," said John, "why my wife is so apt to col-; col-; lapse on the slightest provocation." "Do you call what she has Just pass-; pass-; ed through a 'slight provocation'?" asked Alice sarcastically. "No.' answered John, more meekly than I lia'd ever heard him s,pcRk, "but up until the motor accident and the loss of her baby she has always seemed seem-ed in such radiant health." Not a Quick Recovery. "A woman does not recover quickly from shocks like that," said the old doctor; "in net, I have known it to leave some of them invalids for life." "Surely, you have not the idea that Kalherine "will be left in such a con- . I "No, sir, but I do think that she should be left here in this quiet place until she has recovered." "Oh, I am sorry," exclaimed Alice and John simultaneously. "You see," continued John, "I had , hoped to take her home, perhaps with a nurse at the end of the week." "That would be madness," emphati-cally emphati-cally spoke the doctor. "If you should i do such a thing as that I would not answer for her reason or her life," I felt myself snillinj?, for I could not believe that I was in the dangerous " condition the doctor described. In- !' -wardly I was glad of his decision that r 3 I remain in the little old homo place. "Well," said Alice, "I see no reason why Kathcrine should not stay here. The town will be really beautiful in the springtime and the house and income in-come going with It will be hers now, I suppose." I could not iiolp foellng more con tent with my lot, as I remembered for the first time that this houso, -which had belonged to my mother, would in the future belong to mo, and that I would inherit a small incomo that would make me independent of John. Pretends to Be Asleep. The doctor camo to my bed and I pretended to be asleep. Ho placed his hand on ray forehead for a moment and evidently listened to the coming and going of my breath, and then he tiptoed through the open door where John and Alice were sitting. "The crisis is passed," he said. "When she wakes she will be conscious con-scious again. All she needs now is rest, good air and no worries, and these she can get right down hero with the people who have always loved her." The dear old doctor bade Alice and John goodnight and left the room. He had hardly closed the door when John turned to his sl3ter and said: "Look here, Alice, don't encourage Katherine in staying down hero too long. She v.'ill be much better off at homo with me, and I am sure she will recover much quicker." "Not if you treat her as you have been doing," said Alice decisively. "Why, I have always treated her right except when I have lost my temper." tem-per." , I "That's it, John, only when you have lost your temper, and you have lost 'your temper over such little things I while you were frequently asking her to forgive some pretty big ones." "Well, there is one person I will not ; forgive, and that is Karl Shepard. You know I consider he has very nearly broken up my home, and sometimes T think you aided and abetted him, Al ice." Very Much in Love. "I have," was Alice's serene reply," and it Is probably no news to you, John, that Karl Shepard Is very much In love with your wife, and I think he would make her a much better hus-jband hus-jband than you do." "Alice, does any woman think there are any good husbands?" John asked angrily. "Yes, a few, and I have one of thorn," answered Alice suavely. "But you and Tom never acted as though you wore greatly in love with each other." "No, and we never acted as though we hated each other. We are just pals, old dear, just pals." "Perhaps that is the secret," said John slowly, as ho camo toward my bed. (To Be Continued) |