THE MEMORY OF JIMMY QUIGLEY.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 264, 16 November 1911, Page 3

THE MEMORY OF JIMMY QUIGLEY.

(By Nana Springer White.) When in the funeral of Jimmy Quigley his broun-r loin saw _Utnnie bhanley slip from her suit beside ner mothei into a white motionless heap on the floor between the pews, the last little flame oi hope which he had kept alive in the most secret chamber of his heart flickered and went out. Even as he carried lur to the open air, a tiny voice at the dep.h of his subi conscious self kept saying over and over, "Jimmy won after all.'' When he became conscious of what he was thinking he nearly dropped the slight figure in his iirms, shocked at the horror of his own irreverence. Ever since Minnie Shanley had opened Ikr eyes to the world, the Quigley boys, Jimmic a.nd Tom, whose parents lived next door to the Shankys, had been her devoted slaves. They taught her to creep, to walk and to talk, they were companions always in the childish squabbles of school days. As they grew older and the city kept ever closer to tne humble cottages of their parents, the triangular friendship still continued. It was a curious rivalry, each youth, with the fierce family loyalty that was his Irish heritage, the other to the girl, each careful to preserve a strict balance in the attentions he ottered her. At first the three went everywhere together, as they' had done in thtir childhood. Then gradually there came an unspoken agreement, whereby Tom Quigley always had important engagements when .jimmy escorted Minnie, and Jimmy found tilings which required his immediate presence when Minnie accepted ! Tom's attentions. As for Minnie herself, even the kindly neighborhood gossip, usually unerring in its discernment could not determine which brother she favored. Then came the terrible illness which struck clown Jimmy Quigley. In his delirium he called constantly for Minnie, and the girl who was dear as a daughter to Mrs Quigley, who had been denied one of her own, helped the old woman through the crisis of the sickness and the convalescence. For the first time- Tom Quigley found himself shut out from the companionship of the girl he loved. Jimmie Quigley, well, was honorable and unselfish to a degree; Jimmie Quigley ill, weakened by suffering, threw every considerate the winds save the fierce desire to win Minnie Shanky's love. The result was inevitable. The nurse falls in love with the patient as often as the patient with the nurse. Minnie f-Tnnley lavished all the love of her generous heart upon the sick boy.

"Wh;n ) get well you're going to the priest with me. girl," asserted Jimmie, and Minnie, hiding an agony of appre liuision in her cy-s murmured softly, "Yes. Jimmy, when you get well." ■I couldn't help it, Tom." This was J imink's apobgv to Tom, when, after the ilder In other KH taken care of him through a particularly troublesome !:i'/ht :he sick l.i:l shamefacedly told of Minnie's promise to marry him.

i.om wan at the window, his face fumed away fioin his brother. He tumbled wkti the curtains a long while before he answered.

"Why should you help it, Jimmie?" The older brother's voice was husky, but full of kindness. "We couldn't both have her, and if you must know the truth, while f think a whole lot of Mi'inie, yet Eve been looking in another dir.'ct/jn latelv."

The lie accompanied Jimmie Quigley in:o eternity and smoothed his pathway as his brother intended it should. For Jimmies recovery was short-lived and his decline rapid.

Kut underneath a!l Tom's stoical acceptance of the situation there lav the conviction, horn of wh.it he could not tell, that Minnie's love was onlv a

parsing one, bom of propinquity, that the real depth, of her nature were still untouched. lie put the thought away from him as sacrilegious in the terrible time of Jimmie's death and when .Minnie fainted as the coffin containing the body of he! 1 lover was for ever closed from view, he realised the depth of her grief and also knew that Jimmy, dead was a. far more formidable rival than Jimmie living.

He did no'. sei- her again for over a yi.'iii'. Immediately al'ler the funeral, Minnie worn \o a shadow by her long watching mrl was bori" away to the farm of her godmother. «lw was nlarmul at.-her condition. It was only ...e week before the first anniversary of Jknniie's death tint "Mini?ie came back to the lily. '"Did you see the mass announce--1111 •'!?" ipuried Mrs Qiiigkv on the ev* oing b:forc the anniversary. ''All! hut it's the good, faithful girl Minnie Shanky is." Turn took tlie extended paptr with .hands that trembled. 'l'he announceiik :it was unobtrusive, like the girl who inserted it. A memorial mass will lie offered up at the Church of our Lady of Loerdes. Thursday morning, June 29, at nine o'clock to the, memory of James Quigky. who died June. 29 . IGO2. May' Ids soul rest in peace. MINNIK SHANLEY. Tom Quirky was never psychologist enough to understand just why the simple little announcement made him resolve firmlv that sometime lie would marry Minnie Shanky. even though her heart were buried in his brother's grave. Five times the memorial mass had been said for Jimmie Quigley at the belies of Minnie Shanley before Tom, who for all the long years had played the part of a departed brother to a bereaved sister vutfured to tell the girl of ,his love for her. She was less startled than lie expected. '•l've guessed this, Tom," .she said, quietly, as they sat on the -liiiv verandah of the -Shanley home. "Xo man could be as good as you have been nil these years and not have something like this in his mind. And I don't deny that 1 fee! a little bit different than I used to when you were just JimnnVs brothei' to me. At first it made me feci terrible, just as if T v.'<re- false to .'Timink, but I. believe if Jimmy could look down and see, he would be glad. Hut. Tom. you always must rememle >• one Ibnw. 'Die Vst part- of my heart is buried in Jimmk's wave. J w -jIJ marry yo :. Torn, and I will do my best- to be •' co-xl wife <o von. and T do loyc von a. little, and probably T shall love von as th" years go on. Hut 1 never can force} Jimmie. and—Tom T alwavs want the memorial mass to ;co on for Jimmie. Tt's the only thing T can do for him." "You shall r 'o whatever you like,

sweetheart,," promised Tom as he took her in his arms and kissed her reverently vaguely realising what a queer wooing his was, and how different from other men's must be his marriage. It was a month after the sixth memorial mass that Minnie Shanky went to church and returned Minnie Quigley.