Part 56 (2/2)
Ross Graves looked down at the lovely face beside him, and the look of bitter hatred on his own melted to one of extreme sadness, and as the physician entered he turned and left the room. A careful examination was made, but the ball which had entered the man's side, could not be found, and the physician gave as his opinion that recovery was doubtful.
Mrs. Morris had summoned sufficient courage to enter the house, and stepping cautiously toward the bed, she looked steadily into the face of the wounded man, and then a pitiful cry escaped her lips.
”Oh, my boy! my boy!” she shrieked. ”I have found you at last! Oh dear, oh dear, and you have come here to be shot by that crazy lunatic!”
”Come, old lady, don't take on so; it's bad enough to be shot without having such goings on as this about it.”
”Oh, my poor boy, after huntin' all over the world for you, and to find you like this is the awfullest thing that ever was. What made you stay away so long? I was in hopes you'd come back and take care of me, but of course they ain't so much need of it now, 'cause the deacon, he'll do that; but oh dear, oh dear.”
”Mrs. Morris, you had better take Bessie and go away for a while,”
said Miss Elsworth.
”Why, you don't s'pose I could go out with that crazy lunatic, do you?
Why, she'd be takin' my head off, too.”
”Bessie, come.”
It was Ross calling her and she ran out of the door and skipped away over the meadow toward her home.
”Oh, Charley, my boy, tell me all about it. Where did you stay all the while, and did not come to your poor mother that was jest layin'
awake o' nights on account of you?”
”Now, say, old woman, what the deuce is the sense of you taking on so?
You can't do any good, and where's the use of you making all that fuss?”
”La me, I never thought that o' you, Charley.”
”You see there is lots of things you never thought of, and this is one of them.”
”But, Charley, s'pose you'd die! Oh dear! oh dear! Where do you s'pose you'd go to?”
”To the devil, as likely as not.”
”Oh, don't talk like that!”
”Max Brunswick,” said Miss Elsworth, as she stood by his bedside, ”if you have no fear of a hereafter, I wish you would have respect enough for your poor mother to speak in milder terms. It is hard enough to see you in the condition that you are without making a bad matter worse by making light of the future.”
”How do you know my name is Brunswick?”
”It matters not how I know, but I know you have been called by that name.”
”Who are you?” he asked, in a careless way.
”I am just as you see me, a woman ready to help you in time of need, and it is my intention to do all in my power to add to your comfort.”
”Well, you are a devilish pretty one, at any rate.”
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