Miss Ayr of Virginia, & other storiesMagruder, Julia
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Miss Ayr of Virginia, & other stories
Magruder, Julia
Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
As these thoughts darted through her mind and illuminated her
beautiful face there came a sudden recollection which checked the first
and clouded the second--the thought of Bob with his sad burden of pain
and helplessness. Oh, how dreadful that such things could be! Couldn’t
it be helped? she wondered. Couldn’t something be done? Somehow, a new
power seemed to have come into her--a power of initiative and action,
such as she had never felt before. She suddenly determined that she
would write to the great doctor, of whose skill she had heard so much,
and ask him if he would examine Bob if she brought him on, and tell her
what could be done. The incentive was so strong that she got her desk
and wrote the letter at once, explaining that she had no money now,
except enough for the bare expenses of the trip, but adding that, if
treatment could be had for Bob at a moderate cost, she might hope to
save the money for it, if she could pay a little at a time.
She finished the letter, and addressed it in her delicate,
characteristic hand to Dr. Arthur H. Hubert, but there she had to stop.
It would be necessary to wait until she could get his address.
Ethel waked next morning with a feeling of renewed youth, for which she
could not account, until she recollected the manuscript, which, in her
ardent way, she had slipped under her pillow, before going to sleep.
Perhaps it was to that cause that she was indebted for some very sweet
and joy-giving dreams, in which she had lived in such a rose-colored
world that, even in returning to the sombreness of the actual one, she
brought with her a portion of that lovely hue.
To-day’s mail brought her Mr. Black’s letter, and made it perfectly
clear that this manuscript had been sent her by mistake, instead of
her own. The kind words in the letter helped and strengthened her,
and the reading of the manuscript had given her such joy that she
felt the sting of the failure of her own half obliterated. She sat
down and wrote to Mr. Black, telling him of the mistake, and asking
him to give her the address of Hugh Robertson, so that she might send
his manuscript to him and ask for her own back, if he should, as she
supposed, have received hers. She knew that the more regular way would
be to send the manuscript back to Mr. Black; but the fact was, she
hated to part with it, and she resorted to this means of keeping it a
little longer. She was too refined a girl to have any idea of getting
up an acquaintance with the writer of the story in this way, and it
would never have occurred to her to do more than let him know that
she had read it. That, she thought, she might do, though she did not
mention the fact to Mr. Black.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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