ANOTHER CHANCE.

Northern Advocate, 10 April 1911, Page 3

ANOTHER CHANCE.

(By Editii Livingston Smith.)

DR. NORTON DREW was tired. So was the white horse which carried him in his buggy up the steep hill toward a pretty cottage at the top; .away from the town, away from the factories, where the smoke belched forth and the big brick buildings stood like a blot against the opal sky. To be strictly progressive, Dr. Drew should, have a motor-car. This he knew full well. To be still more progressive, he should leave Williamsville, with its reeking tenements, its mill population, and the tragedies of sickness and death among the poor. This life was wearing him out; and j youth was in his heart, ability in his make-up, and perhaps even fame before him, if he could get more time for study. But it takes money to go abroad to study, and it takes money to exchange a white horse, no longer young, for a motor-car. Perhaps I need hardly mention tho fact that in the pretty cottage at the top of the hill lived Carlotta Morse, a maiden with spring-like face, a nymphlike form, and a woman's soul. There it generally a Carlotta at the top of the hill of a man's ambitions. Dr. Drew lifted the reins thoughtfully from Chariot's broad , -back. It wasnot her fault that she was not propelled by gasoline, but he was impatient of the ascent, for he had news for the lady of his choice. Carlotta met him at the door, and coaxed him prettily to the belated tea-table, where she made him a cup of tea with capable fingers before she asked her questions. "I know it is news when you won't telephone it," she said, smiling. "Curiosity is ■hard, to curb. What have you to tell me?" He looked a,t her thoughtfully across the tea-table. "That our dreams have come true," be said whimsically; "yet—such is the paradox of life—dreams are not always unmixed waking joys. If I go to Germany, I leave you behind." She gave a little cry of delight. "Norton To Germany—to study?" "I can go," he said shortly. "I heard this morning from a lawyer, and in the note was a cheque for two thousand dollars. My father's cousin left it to me, for some strange reason. Lotta, are you glad? It will be hard to leave you, but it is what we have wished." She slipped to her knees before, him, and took his hands in her own gentle clasp. "Glad, yes, and sorry. It will be lonely, but it will be glorious in the ci.'d. Think of your having what you ahvays wanted! Think of what these big hands can accomplish with the opportunity." Her face shone with enthusiasm. "The next best thing to being a great man is to love one," she whispered; "and you Avill be great some day, Norton—l know you will!" "I will e fight for it," he said, "and perhaps I shall win." The door-bell pealed suddenly, and the girl rose to her feet. "Is Dr. Drew here?" they heard a voice say excitedly. "My man's sick, and I saw the doctor's horse outside. Oh, he's dreadful bad!"

The doctor stood up. "Good-by, dear," he whispered. "I'll see you to-morrow night. Good even-;-.ig, Mrs Merle. Yes, I will come witi you at once." He turned Chariot's head toward the town. Mrs Merle's man was, indeed, "bad" —so bad that the doctor grew grave as he came out into the night once more. "The fifth case!" he murmured to himself "It's coming fast!" When he opened his own front door, he- -was so tired that he did not notice, at first, some one standing by the library door He would have started up-stairs, had not a voice arrested him "Oh, I say, Drew.' I've been waiting for you for half an hour I've simply got to see you a moment" Dick Morse, Carlotta's brother, drew Mm into the library and shut the door. By one look at the young man's face the doctor knew that here was another type of illness to face —mental agony. "What is it?" he said kindly. "Did you just come from New York? For pity's sake, what's the matter with you, boy." "The bank!" he whispered huskily. ' The usual story. I didn't mean to, of course, Norton; you know I'm no thief, if I am a fool—l mean I am a thief, but it doesn't come naturally. I was up against it hard. I've been honestly trying to brace up. You know I have, because —oh, well, the same 'because' that most of us have, I guess—a woman. I thought I would take it just for a week—speculation, of course—and it's gone!" "What do t you want me to do?" the doctor said wearily. "Have you told '.hem at the bank?" The young man paled. "No-o," he hesitated- "I thought I might somehow borrow it and pay it back. I couldn't ask my father for anything more, but now—the disgrace —no, I won't say that; I don't want to drag in other people!" The doctor's mind flew to Carlotta, in her father, the quiet invalid scholar —no, it could not be known. "How much do you need?" he said tensely. "Three thousand," Morse said in a lew tone. "I can let you have two thousand —yes, two thousand live hundred — and I think I can borrow the rest. I' will come to the city to-morrow, but you'll have to tell them at the bank. Will you?" "Oh, I suppose so!" the boy groaned. He held out his hand with a tragic gesture. "If God ever made a white man—" he said brokenly. "Nonsense!" the doctor interrupted harshly. "To give you a to-morrow doesn't bring back yesterday. I'm not going to preach, Dick. You know what to think of yourself as well as I could tell you; but if you've any, sense you'd know what I'm doing it for. It's not love of you or of the bank!" "I know," said Dick humbly. "Ifs for Carlotta, but it gives me another chance!" The next evening, the doctor climbed the hili without Chariot. She munched her oats in the stable, weary but satisfied. In the pretty little parlor of the house on the hill he found Carlotta, and he kissed her tenderly. She waited until he had taken the big armchair before she asked her timid question. "Norton, is it typhoid, in the tenements? Oh, say it isn't!" "But it is," he said. "Five cases yesterday, ten n-.ore to-day—how many to-morrow? We are doing everything we can. It's pretty bad!" Carlotta gazed at the dark rings under his keen gray eyes. "You are going to Germany,-' she raid eagerly. "You said so last nieflit. Now you must go at once." "No," he said, with cheery decision. "I am not going now." Carlotta gulped back a sob. "But why?" she said miserably. "You have the money now. IE you stay at home you might spend it, and you may never have two thousand dollars again." "Very likely not," he agreed, smiling; 'so you had better marry nic at once, for love! Seriously, though, dear, I must stay at home. There is typhoid in the mill tenements--you ought to know what that means "

"But your future?" she urgel. "All

our hopes and plans?"

"You wouldn't want me to run away from battle?" he said lightly. "There are nurses coming from the city to-

morrow, and the doctor in tb j next town is going to help me. It's going to be a fight—a hard fight; but we will win, please God! As for the future, little lady, it always gives one another chance."