The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-11-22

Ola t6dy returned TO the lime walk
where Miss Farnham was entertaining
their guest and tearfully explaining
something to him-something connect
ed with Miss Grace and her forgctful-
ness, and how much she had aged OF
late. and what queer mistakes she was
apt to make.
After this young Oliver Deane did not
allude to his father again. but sat ON the
rustic bench betweenhis hostesses and
stoically drank the sweet. sticky port
wine with which they Hospitality piled
him. Then at last. when he arose to 60,
pair of nervous winking brown eyes
looked up at him from behind pair of
spectacles, and an old, quavering voice
asked:
when will you come again. Oliver?
You will not stay away for so long
again?"
NO." he replied. telling the lie with
praiseworthy promptitude. II will come
very SOON"
He was sailing for his home in Aus
tralia the next day, but Mss Farnham
had implored him with a vague, unde-
fined fear which she had all at once
been forced to entertain to humor her
sister
On the very spot where years before
Oliver Deane had hidden farewell to
pretty Grace Farnham, his son stood
and held the old maids Quivering hand
in his. 1t seemed to her as if she were
young once more, as if all the weary
waiting of the past years had been a
sad, dark dream and as If the present
alone was true and sweet and real So
she lived in the sunshine of her little
romance once more, and when at last
Oliver Deane passed through the gate
and away out of sight and hearing
down the highroad, Miss Grace turned
back quietly to her sister.
Il am puzzled. Stella" she said,
thoughtfully. He does not seem
changed in appearance at all, but some
how he Is different-cold and strange
and rot like himself"
''Gracier' Miss Farnham's voice was
shrill and her face white and drawn.
Oracle, surely you cannot believe that
this young man was the Oliver Deane
whom we knew when we were girls?''
Then very gently: ''rear, what has
come to you? Can you possibly think
that he would be just the same after all
these years?"
''It puzzles me, dear Stella" was Miss
Grace's gentle answer 1T ali seems
so very strange. and although l have
been expecting his coming so long and
felt certain that he would keep his
word to me, yet still the meeting seemed
to come upon me very suddenly. ! am
thankful had the strength and cour-
age to trust him-so thankful And as
she spoke there was new brightness
in her dim brown eyes and the same
vague, patient smile on her lips
1T has been hard sometimes. Stella,
to believe that he had not forgotten me,
particularly when l saw how foolish
you considered me. and then, oh. the
years have been so long, dear-so long!
But yet something always seemed to
tell me that some day he would come,
and. Stella. Stella, you see now that l
was right!'
Come, Grace" said Miss Farnham.
hCi SioSOA hoht
within her arm; the sun is going
down and it is chilly out here; let us go
back into the house and-and you must
rest after all this excitement"
Together the two lonely little old
maids left the shadowy lime walk
where this last terrible blow had just
fallen on them, and as Miss Farnham
passed by her sisters side over the
lawn, where the last rays of the glow
ing red sun were resting, she realized
how deep were the cruel wounds which
the weary years Of waiting had made
in Miss Grace's gentle heart, and to
what they had at last brought her.
Poor little old maids.
All through the summer they hum
ored her, Miss Farnham and good
hearted Jane and sometimes the doctor.
He would come again in the autumn,
they said, and Miss Grace watched the
leaves Of the garden grow red and
gold and brown, and even when they
had futtered to the ground and were
blown hither and thither by the wild
winds, and when she knew that wiuter
was close at hand-he never came.
They told her that be would come in
the springtime and used to move her
great arm-chsir close to the window
where she could see down to the lime
garden gates; ard she saw how the
snow all melted away at the caressing
touch of the bright sunshine, which
seemed to CLINT and sparkle every
where. even in her dark, gloomy bed
room. and even when she saw the well
coined buds and leaflets on the lime
trees in the old walk, she asked-and
no. even then he had not come.
The rosebushes were all in bloom
once more and Jane gathered handfuls
Of til EN- and carried them TO Miss
Grace and Miss Farnham laid them on
her bosom and her thin folded hands
She had trusted all through the long
springtirne and then at last, when the
scent of the flowers was waited UP
from the pretty garden TO her window.
and she knew that another summer
was come, she smiled her old gentle.
patient smile and closed her tired eyes
and rested-for Oliver Deane never
came. All the Year Round
Mrs Ann Sullivan. of Wurtsboro,
y. Y. IS supposed to De the oldest
woman in the State. Her age is one
hundred and ten, she is quite vigorous
and has not used glasses for twenty
two years. though before that time she
needed them
Prof Uazen, of the United States
weather bureau. IS going TO attempt an
aerial voyage acro~s the Atlantic IN a
balloon covered with gola bezters' skin. /
which. not being porous. prevents the |