FIGHTING HER WAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9702, 27 January 1910, Page 2

FIGHTING HER WAY.

CHAPTER lll.—Continued

Scarcely half an hour had passed j before a ring at the hospital door put an end to the sick girl's present torture. A worse one awaited her instantly. 'Come to take the smallpox case to the boat; 'hurry it up—time's short.' This brutal announcement, brutally uttered, was made by a giant in a heavy ulster, who .had just alighted from an ambulance at the doer. 'She's in here,' said Mrs Porter, leading the way to the room in which she bad lefc Christine. As gently aa she could the woman informed her charge that this man had come to take her to the Blackwell's Island boat. 'But Doctor Alcot has not returned,' she pleaded in a frightened way, while casting horrified glances at the rough man to whose custody she was requested to resign herself. 'Can't help it, miss. Orders is to take you down to the boat right at once—time's very nigh up.' 'Oh,'.but I cannot go—alone!' she cried, clasping her hands in the intensity of remonstrance. "Plenty of other passengers aboard for the hospitals and things,' areued the man impassively. 'I must wait for Doctor Alcot.' 'Well, miss, if that's your determination, I'm sorry to say it's my orders to pick you up bodily and carry you to the boat. Doctor Howard 'lowed you might resist, and his i»struetion3 to ma said, 'Mind you take the case away if you've got to do it in your arms." An instant change came over the girl's face; the half-freDzied look gave place to one of great fortitude. Gathering herself together, she rose and moved toward the door. To her infinite dismay, she found that a steady but light rain was falling and being driven by a sharp easterly wind. 'Am I to be exposed to such weather?' she asked, turning woeful eyes to the huge, solid mass of healthy flesh and blood who waited to bear her off in the teeth of this pitiless stown, with a deadly disease rife in her fair, frail body. 'Oh, we'll wrap you up. I reckon you won't git so very wet.' She made another step forward, but staggered blindly; all things were in a wild, hot whirl before her fire-lit brain, a sound .as of rushing torrents in her ears. Deliriums closed, mercifully, the doors of her reason, and she fell into the stout arms of the ambulance driver. CHAPIER IV. DOCTOR HOWARD'S MOTIVE. When Frederick Alcot left Miss Castlebar, after his first examination of her case, he went directly to the house of his former guardian and preceptor, Doctor Howard, a member of the board of health, whom he requested to accompany him to Miss Catslebar's store. In the excited and deeply interested manner evinced by Doctor Alcot when stating the case and condition of his patient, Doctor Howard fancied that there was a more profound and tender sentiment than mere professional concern. Appearing not to notice this, he put Bome adroit questions, that were answered in a manner to confirm his suspicions that this fair Christine Castlebar was a person[of more than ordinary attractions, and also that the heart of his ward, the young physician, was sensibly affected by them. The'discovery was full of pain- | ful significance to Doctor Howard. Behold why.

Frederick Alcot was a young man of uncommon mark—not only because of his talent and t the distinction he bad attained in his profession—but on account of his being the possessor of a handsome fortune of which Doctor Howard had been the guardian. It was the long-cherished desire of Doctor Howard's life to marry his only child, a girl of eighteen, to this fortune.

Up to the present moment the relations of the young people toward each other had seemed to promise most fairly for the realisation of this hope. No definite understanding had beeu arrived at. but there was nothing t cloud tne prospect of it Devoted to his professional pursuits with the ardor of a true scienti&t, young Alcot had never taken much interest in society, nor indulged in any of its gaieties. Excepting Miss Howard, he was never seen with ladies; and his native coldness seemed to render hini inaccessible) to the allurements that were constantly offered hiir. \o extend his attentions. It was, therefore, with very natural surprise and keen alarm that his guardian witnessed this intense solicitude on Frederick's part for the beautiful girl, whose rare charms he had heard made the subject of 'much flattering comment before now. ' Of course he did not imagine that a man with Frederick Alcot's brilliant prospects could contemplate the tolly of marriage with this poor shop- ( girl, however she may have engaged his fancy. But he was woridly-wise enough to know that such a fancy as too evidently held sway in Freder-

BY BOSS ASHLEIGH. Author of "Eleanor's Luck," "The Widow's Wager." "Pure Gold," Etc, etc.

ick's singularly phlegmatic nature might prove utterly destructive of his expectations, so far as the match with his own daughter was concerned. Doctor Howard was disturbed by these reflections, and went to his official inspection of the case, very much as a packed jury goes into the panel, with his mind made up as to the verdict he would find. Doctor Alcot had said he feared varioloid. Doctor Howard ft It quite certain his fears would be realised long before he reached the 'sufferer, whose disease was to be determined by his dictum. On arriving at the flower store, and keenly scrutinising the countenance of his ward during the exam ination, Doctor Howard felt justified in adopting the most extreme measures to arrest the infatuation under which his coveted son-in-law was fast succumbing tor this woman, who was really a creature to command the most fervid admiration. Even his own toughtened sensibili • ties yielded to the soft, sweet witchery of her pure loveliness, enhanced as it was by suffering and menial distress.

Doctor Alcot felt bound to sustain and to coincide with Doctor Howard in all that he said to Christine; and, not sure of his ability tD avoid the cruel necessity which the elder physician had decreed, he thought best to exhort the girl to submission. But the moment he found himself alone with his senior; after leaving her, he said, in a very decided manner: 'Doctor, Miss Castlebar must not be sent to Black well's Island.' 'You talk nonsense, my dear Fred. You know, as well as I, that I have no alternative but to report the case, and let it be treated according to the laws in such instances. She certainly cannot remain in a healthy locality with small-pox.' 'No; but why not let her have quarters in the reception hospital?' 'You forget it is prohibited for such a patient to remain in the city.' 'True,' said Doctor Alcot sadly, and remained silent and thoughtful for some time.

At length he added: 'I suppose she must be sent away; but a few hours wiil not mak a very great difference. I will take her to East Twenty-sixth street as soon as I put you down, and then see what I can do to have her taken care of elsewhere than in the hospital she so much dreads. I shall leave her in charge of Mrs Porter until l ean settle something.' Doctor Howard made no demur; all the same, he came to a decision. Fred Alcot must not be let alone in his quixotism of taking this charming patient under his care in the way he proposed. • Accordingly he dispatched his emissary to remove the case during Fred's absence in the manner we have seen.

Fortunately for poor Christine, the delirium of fear,which followed her swoon saved her from a consciousness of the painful details attending her removal to the hospital on Blackwell's Island, where she was taken in charge by the gentle Sisters of Mercy, whose duties lay in nursing the patients. Leaving her tenderly cared for by the 'pale nun,' Sister Agatha, who sits beside her couch, soothing the burniner forehead with soft touches of holy hands, grown strangely wise in all such sad ministry—we, dear reader, will seek once more the presence of handsome Roland Marlow, whom we saw last on his way to meet an engagemnt at the house of a merchant prince in Fifth Avenue. CHAPTER V. PLAYING WITH FIRE. Christine Castlebar did not know that her fair band had decorated Ronald Marlow for the eyes of one of the handsomest and wealthiest young women in the city. Nevertheless, it was true that Mr Marlow, the poor young barrister, with only his wits and his manliness for his title to the favour of an heiress, had the hone of having won the first place in the regard of Miss Gertrude Carrol, to whom it was generally supposed he was engaged, but for no better reason than that he was seen with her every evening, either at her bouse or some place of entertainment, and because no one gave him credit for being such a fool as to miss the chance of sucli a fortune asthat which Gerty Carrol eo plainly flung at his head.

Mr MarJow was the son of a once wealthy and influential New England gentleman, who, in the crisis of 1876, lost his fortune. i<i a luckless speculation. Young Ronald had almost finished his course at Harvard, and immediately after the financial disaster that left h'm dependent on his own exertion!!', he removed to New York, —that generous refuge for all kinds and conditions of people -and began the practice of law. His own talent, aided by the kind offices of his father's fritnds, soon gained him a fair start in the profession,, and now, after five years, he was able to live like a gentleman, and indulge in moderation the tastes with which he had been reared. TO BE CONTINUED