THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10202, 5 August 1896, Page 3

THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER.

BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER, Author of" Booth's Baby." " Houp '" Diana Forget," " Beautiful Jim," " The Other Man's Wife," "Private Tinker," "A liorn Soldier," " A Magnificent Young Man," etc.

[COPVRIGHT.I

CHAPTER XV. NEWS FROM BHOZAR.

I only etaypd a few minutes by the bedside of the young princess on tint my first visit to her. Of course, I saw nt the first glance thab her days wore numbered ; the most unprofessional eye could not have mistaken the signs of approaching dissolution so painfully manifest in that sweet face. It was a sweet face, not very much like m&dame, her mother, and yet bearing, something of the same impress.

"It is so kind of you to come and see me," she said, holding out a thin and fragile hand which laying burning in my own like a red-hot coal, " because I am such an invalid ab present, and cannob talk much .or in any way entertain you. I wanted to see you—l had a great desire to see you—to thank you with all my heart for having given up your charming nurse to me. Ib was unfortunate that my second English nurse was taken ill, and had to go back to England, and that my mother was nob able to replace her as easily as she imagined she would be able to do."

So they had not told her of the nurse'fi death, and probably she knew nothing of the fever with which Plorestella was stricken. I hastened to assure her that in truth it had been no groat sacrifice ou my part to give up Nurse Mordaunb to her. " You see, I have my ayah," I said, "and silo understands my ways and is able to do everything that I require. I was indeed very glad that nurse was able to come to you." "Ah, that is your kind way of putting it," she said, lying baok on her pillows and looking at me with her large hazel eyes; "that is your way of putting it, Mrs. Hamlyn; bub because you do nob allow that your kindness is worth mention, my mother and I are not obliged to agree with you. You will never know the difference that it has made to us to have such a nurse as this suddenly . placed ab our disposal;' Some day, perhaps, we may be able to repay your self-sacrifice, but only in a measure, never as it deserves."

The effort of talking seemed to exhaust her terribly, and nurse looked ab me warningly as if ib would be besb it I took myself away. "I think you are tired to-night, princess," 1 said bo the invalid. " Don't you think ib would be bettor if I came in again to see you ? Ab any time, if you send nurse for me, I will come to see you with pleasure." She jusb touched my hand again and smiled. " You are very good," she said, under her breath, as I rose from ray chair, "you are very good. Come and see me again." . Nurso Mordaunb wont out of the room with me. As she closed the door behind her, I turned and asked her a question, " Will she live through tho night, do you think?"

" Oh, yes," nurse replied, " she may live tor weeks abo has a wonderful etoro of strength behind all thab exhaustion. She wili rally presently ; she does thab every day; that is the worst part of her complaint. She might have lived for mouths, or dragged on even for years, ifi b had not been for this fever. Poor girl, it is that | which is sapping her life . out at the veryfj root."

As I passed down the corridor I saw the princess, who was in hor Sitting-room and; on the look-out for mo. "I was afraid to; stay in the room with my- daughter," she. said, drawing me to the window, " because evory extra person who is breathing the air tends to exhaust hor. That is why I slipped away when I bad taken you in. Tell me what yon think of her?" " I think she looks terribly ill, madams," I replied. "Yes, yes, more than ill. I shall not have ray child with me long. lam quite prepared for it. I have expected it, feared it, dreaded it for months past, but ib has been very near during these past few days. Ib comes nearer with evory moment. She was pleased to see you she continued, with a great effort at cheerfulness. "Sho seemed to bo so; she begged me to go and see her again. You will send for me, madamo, at any time that I can be of the smallest pleasure or distraction to her." " You are remaining in Flarestolla!" she said.

| "I am remaining for the present because I droad leaving, and the doctor fears for my taking a journey while my health is so bad as it is just now. I don't think that'l shall get the fever. I don't feel like it." " Ah, one never knows. It would be better to get away. I cannot, of course 1 could not move my daughter in her present condition ; that is out of the question. But you—your tie here is broken ; you have yourself and your husband to think of. My dear friend," she went on, laying hor slim hand upon my shouldor with a gestur of affection, such as only tho shadow of grief ever begets in those who have bub just learned to know each otber, "for his sake you ought to get away." " Not for a few days," I said, drawing a deep breath. "I am nob fib bo take a journey, and Ayah is not fit to do so either. i havo to think of her a little. Some AngloIndians do think of tho natives, you know, though the majority do nob. Some treat the natives as if they were dirt under their feot, and as if their lives wore worth nothing; bub this poor soui clung to my little child with a devotion which has outshono any devotion which I have ever seen, and I cannot drag her off on a journey until she has somewhat recovered from her exhaustion and grief. I shall remain here for the present." 1 ended. " People who have been used to living in India do nob run away like scared rabbits from the mere chance of infection."

So I remained on, and every day, sometimes twice, Nurse Mordaunt would come round and fetch me to pay a visit to the young princess. Sometimes I would stay half an hour beside hsr, not balking much, but just sitting there; at others eho would be tired in ten minutes, and one day she said to me, "Mrs. Hamlyn, do you sine?'

As a matter of fact, I did ping; nob very much, not to pride myself upon it—for I had never had the advantage or chance of receiving really good training—but I had a pleasant little mezzo-soprano pipe, and I sang, or I bad beon used to sing, to please myself, and those who loved me. Having found out so much, she insisted on my singing to her. She was passionately fond of music ; and the landlord of the Hotel des Anglais, who would, I think, have given hi. bead to make the Austrian ladies happy or comfortable, broughb in a little piano from his wife's sitting-room, and put it in the large and airy apartment into which Princess Elizabeth's bed was moved every morning through the folding doors from her sleeping chamber. After the coming of the piano, I used to spend hours thore during the courso of the day, going over all the songs that I had ever known, not attempting to sing grandly, but just crooning over the airs which were her favourites and mine; and sometimes the princess herself would como and sit listening, and once or twico she came into the corridor with me, and told me, with tear-ladon eyes, that never, never should she be able to make me any adequate return lor what I bad been able to do for her. "But I cannot help being anxious and uneasy about you," she ended. " You ought to be away from this place. It is not right of you to stay bora. The risk is too great." _ n " I shall not go away just ab presont, I replied, quietly. "Tho doctor thinks that I am bettor whore I am, and I havo written to my physician in London, Sir Fergus Tiffany, who confirms his opinion. I am taking great care of myself. 1 carry a parfcct pharmacopoeia of drugs and preventatives hare," touching the bosom of my dress, " and I am taking quinine and all sorts of strengthening medicines and tonics. 1 don'b think you need worry' about me, princess, I don't indeed ; and while I can . make such a,difference to Princess Elizabeth I would rather Bfcay

where I am than go oat into the world among strangers again. You forgob," I went on, "I am not like someone who has a home to go to; my home is thousands and thousands of miles away. If I went back to it, I should be alone just the same. 1 eould not go to join my husband. No woman could get to the Bhoz&r district where he is, and if she coul I get there she would not be permitted to do so, as' affairs are at present, so that I am better here than I should be anywhere else. Don't trouble yourself about me; 1 am happier here, and therefore I think that I am safer."

. "Ah 1" she said, with a sigh, "I would that I could take you both away back to our home in Styria. It is bleak there in the winter—that was why we left it—but we have no fever."

I thought as the words fell from her lips that, if they did not have fever they had other things quite as deadly, bub it was of no use saying it, so I held my peace. " If it would be any service to you to go there now, to take-your Ayah, and make it your home," she said eagerly, " indeed, my dear Mrs. Hamlyn, the Castle is absolutely at your disposal. Only you would be alone, for my son has been away for many months now upon a long hunting expedition—truly, I hardly know wharo. He knows nothing bo far of the trouble we are in, I mean of the grave danger that besets bis sister. Of course, he knew that wo were to spend the winter in Ploreatella, that was arranged at the same time as bio long journey was planned out." I thanked her very gratefully for her kind thought, bub said that I preferred to stay in Florestella rather than face the loneliness of a place where I should know nobody, and could not oven speak the language of tho people about me. So I remained on in Plorestella, spending ;the greater part of my day in helping to pub the time on—the time that was so weary and so distressing for the dying young princess.

I heard twice from Eddy whilst I was thus occupied, both letters written in ignorance of our little child's death, both very full of tbe everyday events around him, speaking of the difficulty of making war against these guerilla-like hardy tribes, who had incomparably the advantage over the British and oven the nativo troops, inasmuch ts they were at homo in tho district. Both letters spoke of the extreme privation thab thoy wore undergoing, and of the poor arrangements which tho authorities had made for their safety and their well-being. "If it were not for our doctors," Eddy wrote in his second letter, "I really do nob know how the poor devils of invalid.} would come off. Their devotion is beyond all praise, and their pluck something astounding. What do you think of Stewart—the gay lady-killer, who was always loafing arouud Mubbrahabad, a regular squire of dames— beef-tea and mutton broth with his own hands for his patients! And yet I see him do it day after day. I nover thought Stewart had it in him. Ho is a regular brick, and no mistake about it."

The letter went on to tell how rejoiced he was to think that we, his two precious invalids, were in Europe safe and well, and recovered from all imraediata danger. " When I remember," he ended, " how resolute you were in r#fusing to go away, and how wonderfully it all came about that you should go in spite ot yourself—for you know, dearest, I could never have forced you to do anything against your will—l can only think that a merciful Providence intervened to help us both at that juncture. You don't know how often I have thought of your resolute determination nob to leave me : yon will never understand how intensely I loved you for being unwilling bo do so, and 1 don't think you will ever realise how utterly grateful I am to think that you were made to go in spite of yourself. I feel that the same Providenco which has watched over you and brought you and the dear child to renewed health and gaiety, will watch over tho fate of your always loving and devoted husband; at the same time, I do nothing foolhardy, I take care of mysolf, I run no unnecessary risks—only cowards do that. Every time that I safeguard mysolf I say in my own heart, ' It is for Doreray. Doremy loves ma. Doromy would tnias mo. I must watch ovor myself for her sake.'" Somehow thab letter comforted me more than any letter that I had received from Eddy since our parting ; it seemed to bring him nearer tome. True, he did not know 'las yet that we were childless, but I was comfortod to know that he was always thinking about us, as I was always thinking about him.

Princess Elizabeth pub the same question to me every day—" Have you news of your husband?" And when I told her that I had received that last letter ot his, thab I had just heard from him, that he was well, in good health and taking care of himself, hor sweet face was radiated by a smile which told me as nothing else would have done thab I had indeed won my way deep into her heart. Poor thing ! she was so ill th.it day—oh, to ill—so full of fever, and yet so thoroughly exhausted. My heart ached for hor more than ever.

As tho season advancod the severity of tho provalonb epidemic slowly and surely increased. Those who wero able to leave had flown from tho district, bub those who were unable to face a long journoy, or unable to leave from other reasons, found themsolves caged like rats in a trap. Florostella was not the worst of the feverstricken towns in the infected district, but it was more than bad enough, Every day familiar faces disappeared. Sisters of Mercy went trudging to and fro throughout the town, and we who were in fair health were conicious, without knowing the actual facts, that an unusual disturbance was abroad. Strange and disquieting rumours came to ns hourly of those who had slipped away to other and lens dangerous places, who had boon refused admittance last they should carry btie lever in their train ; others who had fled elsewhere for safety had found themselves literally out of the fryingpan into tho fire, had found themselves from & town with 6 comparatively clean bill of health in one which was a seething mass of insidious corruption and disease.

" Best to stay where you are," was the fiat of the doctor, when 1 asked him as to the truth of these rumours. " 1 give you the same advioa to-day thab I gave you when you asked mc about tho poor little child. She had a ghost of a chance here— nob a great one, but still a chance—taken away she would havo had none. I say the sime bo you now. Take the tonics that I give you and the precautions that I recommend to you, and you may be tolerably safe; make an effort to escape, and you will almost certainly be caught as you fly." But I had nob the smallest intention of flying. 1 felt thab bis advice was sound and good, and as long as Princess Elizabeth wished for me, jusb so long would I remain within reach of her.

" I would like," I said to him, "jusb one thing," " And that is, Mrs. Hamlyn—?" " I would have liked to have got my poor Ayah back to India, but I suppose that is ( out Of the question. I could nob arrange for such a journey here, and ab this time. I suppose I shall have to keep her until I am well enough to go back myself." "You will not go back to India ab prosent ?"

"Not if my husband has any chance of coming over; bub, failing bhab, I shall certainly go back before the hob weather sets in, thab would be in May or April, possibly. I could nob sbay over hore indefinitely if 1 were well enough to make the journey back again, I suppose there is no help for me but to keep Ayah where she is., After all, this climate is not like tho English one for her, and alio has little or nothing to.do in attending to me. Still, 1 would have.sent her back it it had been fairly easy to arrange. For myself, I ("ball remain bore as long as Princess Elizabeth has any need of me. She likes mo to go and see her, and she is wearing away to fast. She cannot keep me very long." "Nob more than a few days," the doctor replied gravely. "I do nob say ib bo bhem, although her poor mother knows what my every look means, bub a few days will see tho Princess Elizabeth Barzadiev over her earthly troubles." (To be continued an Saturday next.