At the Mercy of Tiberius | Page 5

yourself, mother, or you will be so ill that I cannot leave you.
Dr. Grantlin impressed upon us, the necessity of keeping your nervous
system quiet. Take your medicine now, and try to sleep until I come
back from Stephen & Endicott's."
"Do not go to-day."

"I must. Those porcelain types were promised for a certain day, and
they should be packed in time for the afternoon express going to
Boston."
"Beryl."
"Well, mother?"
"Come nearer to me. Give me your hand. My heart is so oppressed by
dread, that I want you to promise me something, which I fancy will
lighten my burden. Life is very uncertain, and if I should die, what
would become of my Bertie? Oh, my boy! my darling, my first born!
He is so impulsive, so headstrong; and no one but his mother could
ever excuse or forgive his waywardness. Although younger, you are in
some respects, the strongest; and I want your promise that you will
always be patient and tender with him, and that you will shield him
from evil, as I have tried to do. His conscience of course, is not
sensitive like yours--because you know, a boy's moral nature is totally
different from a girl's; and like most of his sex, Bertie has no religious
instincts bending him always in the right direction. Women generally
have to supply conscientious scruples for men, and you can take care of
your brother, if you will. You are unusually brave and strong, Beryl,
and when I am gone, you must stand between him and trouble. My
good little girl, will you?"
The large luminous eyes that rested upon the flushed face of the invalid,
filled with a mist of yearning compassionate tenderness, and taking her
mother's hands, Beryl laid the palms together, then stooping nearer,
kissed her softly.
"I think I have never lacked love for Bertie, though I may not always
have given expression to my feelings. If at times I have deplored his
reckless waywardness, and expostulated with him, genuine affection
prompted me; but I promise you now, that I will do all a sister possibly
can for a brother. Trust me, mother; and rest in the assurance that his
welfare shall be more to me than my own; that should the necessity
arise, I will stand between him and trouble. Banish all depressing
forebodings. When you are strong and well, and when I paint my great

picture, we will buy a pretty cottage among the lilacs and roses, where
birds sing all day long, where cattle pasture in clover nooks; and then
Bertie, your darling, shall never leave you again."
"I do trust you, for your promise means more than oath and vows from
other people, and if occasion demand, I know you will guard my Bertie,
my high-strung, passionate, beautiful boy! Your pretty cottage? Ah,
child! when shall we dwell in Spain?"
"Some day, some day; only be hopeful, and let me find you better when
I return. Sleep, and dream of our pretty cottage. I must hurry away with
my pictures, for this is pay day."
Tying the strings of her hat under one ear, and covering her face with a
blue veil, Beryl took a pasteboard box from a table, on which lay
brushes and paints, and leaving the door a-jar, went down the narrow
stairs.
At the window of a small hall on the next floor, a woman sat before her
sewing-machine, bending so close to her work that she did not see the
tall form, which paused before her, until a hand was laid on the steel
plate.
"Mrs. Emmet, will you please be so good as to go up after a while, and
see if mother needs anything?"
"Certainly, Miss, if I am here, but I have some sewing to carry home
this afternoon."
"I shall not be absent more than two hours. To-night I am going South,
to attend to some business; and mother tells me you have promised to
wait upon her, and allow your daughter Maggie to sleep on a pallet by
her bed, while I am gone. I cannot tell you how grateful I shall be for
any kindness you may show her, and I wish you would send the baby
often to her room, as he is so sweet and cunning, and his merry ways
amuse her."
"Yes, I will do all I can. We poor folks who have none of this world's

goods, ought to be rich at least in sympathy and pity for each other's
suffering, for it is about all we have to share. Don't you worry and fret,
for I will see your ma has what she needs. I was mothered by the best
woman God ever made, and since she died, every sick mother I see has