Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-09-03

she aroused from . happy, expectant reverie to ask, midway. The aftermath of the June moving was tall by now, and the chair was al- most hidden in it.
 'Now-I don keer fur ter take ye near that big tree. Faint wholesome nor properr' grunted the charioteer. He was slightly afraid of the testy little damsel, and took on doughty airs at l times to disprove a fact. Well soon | git inter the path agi'n."
 But won't stand thisT' cried Hester, irate. ''Go back to the path! Not wholesomel not properi What do you | mean?"
 ''Now-I seen the light there often- | er'n anywheres else"-Homer was be- ginning, when they were hailed by a well-known voice.
 What are you doing over there?" called March.
 Swimming for our hves," returned Hester. Wont you dive, and drag me out by the hair of my head?"
 Her tone was tremulous with delight. As he tooS her hand, it quivered like a poplar-leaf in his large, cordial grasp. He was fond of Hester on her own ac- count, fonder of her because he linked her with Hetty. He had strolled down the street with his cigar after giving his mother a detailed account of the pleasure-making of the last three weeks. He felt the heat inland to be oppressive after the surf-breeze. His mother was glad that his saunteP was not in the di- rection of the parsonage. She knew nothing of the short cut from the back street or, with what ease an athlete of six-and-twenty could vault f1ve-barred fence. Besides, was not her boy a cured and discharged patient?
 The meeting with Hester, if not the best thing he had hoped for, was so much better than a solitaEy ramble in dream haunted grounds, that he greeted her ioyously. It was not the first time the idea had como to him of making a confi- dante of the keen-witted, deep-hearted child, but it suddenly took the shape of determination.
 Going to see May!" he echoed her reply to his next question. "She is tired out, and has gone to her room by this. She means to claim you for the whole of tomorrow. Give me a little chat in our arbor instead, and will take you home. have not seen you for an age, and have something very interesting to me and important to you, to say to you"
 She laughed up in his face in sheer pleasure.
 And have something particularly interesting to me, and not important to you, to tell in return. We have an event in our family-an agreeable hap pening as to results, although it comes by dark and crooked road-or so man. ma persists in saying"
 March had propelled her into the open track and stopped as she said this to lean forward and peer into the saucy face. A disagreeabAn - an absurd thrill passed over him Had ho lost Hetty?
 An event. Accomplished or pros- pective?"
 "BothT chuckled Hester.
 "Is it an engagement?' bringing out the word courageously.
 The question was never answered. A vigorous onward push had brought them into the moonlit area surrounding the king apple tree. Thor rushed for ward, believing ferociously at long, black body that lay half under, half beyond the dipping outward branches, now weighted almost to the ground with growing fruit.
 "Homerr shouted March to the figure retreating toward the garden. Come back! hurry" And, hastily, to Hester: "I will sond you homo with him and go for tho police. Don't be frightened. It is only drunken tramp, or may be, asleep. In either case he can not stay here. These are my fathers grounds"
 Hester had not uttered a sound, but the slight figure, bent toward the re- cumbent one, had a strained intensity of expression words could not have conveyed. Her eyes were fixed, as by the fascination of mortified dread-one small hand plucked oddly at her throat.
 Take her home, Homer!' March or dered, "and say nothing to alarm the ladies. I'll attend to htm!'
 ''Nol no! No!" shrilled Hester in an unearthly tone that made him start. "You must go home! you! yOu! and say nothing! tell nobody! O Cop of mercy, it. has come at last! Don't touch him!" her voice rising into a husky shriek. For, parting the boughs, March passed to the head of the prostrate man, and stopped to raise him. His quick eye had perceived that he was well-dressed and no common tramp in figure, also that he had lain, not fallen, where he was found. In bending to take hold of him, he detected, even in the intensity of his excitement, the peculiar, heavy, close odor of drugs that had hung in the air on the Fourth of July night In company with a policeman, our young artist had once visited a Chinese "opi- um dive" in New York, and he recog- nized the smell now.
 Homer was beside him, and lent in- telligent aid.
 "Nolc," he drawled, without the slightest evidence of alarm. 'I mostly lif's him up so-fashion!"
 The action brought the features into rift of moonlight.
 Great Heavens!'' broke from March in low tone of horror and dismay. ''It is MT. WaytP'
 Laying him back on the turf he went back to Hester and seized the bar of her chair,