Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-12-06
NEVER AGAIN.

break upon the silence of his solitude.
us 90 very lonesome?'
Nigel Macpherson turned his blind
eyes round in the direction whence the
words came to him. He had not heard
the door open; but a watt of the outer
air that blow in on him, told him it
was standing wide now.
Perhaps his visitor saw HIM SILVER;
for she put her sturdy shoulders to the
door, and shut it to. it being five min
utes' work, rs she had just learned by
experience to reach the lock a-tiptoe.
us 100 very lonesome?'
This time ii was not over by the door,
but close to his elbow; and the hand
that lay listlessly on the arm of his chair
felt something very like an electric
thrill, rs Il small velvet-soft cheek nest
led against it.
1t seemed that she must have her
answer; but it also seemed that it per-
picked her nearer to give one.
He had been sitting bowed together
in his easy chair drawn up before the
hearth, the cheerful blaze upon which
he could feel, if he could not see; but
there had been no cheerfulness reflected
in his face.
child said, lonesome, rather, as one
whose life was so benumbed as TO be
past the sense of loneliness.
The child could not understand that,
however; il was the bowed figure which
had appealed to her; and she said. still
with her soft cheek rubbing against his
hand and sleeve, in pretty kittenish
way she had
Mamma Milly sits that way when
she's lonesome. think 90 must be,
too
"And who is Mamma Millyph
Macpherson had began to wonder if
e had been lonesome-as one begins
10 thaw and then grow conscious of the
Id.
Mamma Milly? Oh, she's not Lulu s
Nn mamma. Lulu own mamma went
heaven, and Mamma Milly came to
rep Lulu and papa from being lone
onc.
What made him smile? Lulu could
~rc nothing 10 smile at, though she
"okcd around her.
What great bare ugly room it was
big enough TO hold all the rooms at
ONE.
The child's round blue eyes could
Ut take in the fact that the old-fash-
med place was furnished well and
handsomely enough; that it was only
iAc absence of Il wOman's loving touch
which made the wide difference between
house and a home.
.'And do Mamma Milly and papa
know where you are, my little one?'
asked Macpherson, laying his hand on
the small curly head, from which she
had pushed back the hood "And will
not they be lonesome after you?'
But the child laughed.
How can papa be lonesome when
he's gone to heaven to meet my own
mammal And Mamma Milly-"
What was that step at the doorp Was
this lonely man, who asked no one
across his threshold, to be thronged
with visitors this evening?
There was o hurried knock; and the
door was hastily opened.
A young woman in mourning came
forward few PAGES, putting back the
Grape veil which the wind had blown
half across her face.
She glanced around. half bewildered.
In her eagerness she had opened the
hall door, and she was startled to see
that she stood in one of those square,
furnished hall IS one sometimes finds in
old-fashioncd houses; and that she had
thrust herself in on some one seated
there.
Pardon me-" she said, 'but / have
lost my little girl have no time to
lose, it is fast growing Oakland
thought l tracked her little footsteps
through the snow close by your door
Mamma Milly, Mamma Milly!r
She had not all ut once seen the
child, who was standing on the other
side of Macpherson's armchair. Itwa:
not at sight of her, but of the man seat
ed in the armchair, that she had broker
short her speech.
She did not seem to see the child
even now. She was standing with hel
eyes riveted on the man, every trace o
color banished out of her fair face.
Lulu had come round to the othel
side of the chair. She still kept on,
soft little hand upon Macpherson's arm
while she reached out the other to thu
new conner.
''He was lonesome Mamma Milly
Lulu was sure he was lonesome. Lulu
just peeped in the door, and saw hin
sitting so"
SultlDG the tClloH W tnc Woiu, oh
dropped her pretty head upon he
breast
But the new conner did not answe
her with so much as a glance.
She stood, pale and trembling, look
ing at the man who had turned hi
sightless eyes in the direction OF th
strangers voice.
She did not know that they wcr
sigh,less; they only seemed 20 be regard
ING her with cold vacant stare.
Come, Lulu" she said present.
with stifed sigh.
Emily
IL was Nigel Macpherson voice.
She did not answer.
"Emily,'' he cried again in that shar
ringing tone. surely, surely, canno
be deceived-that is her voice.
"Am so changed she said, '.th'
Nigel Macpherson needs TO ask II
Is I?"
I've words were spoken bitterly; b
are more bitter still.