Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-31

you know why was not all smiles
when You met me, Notwithstanding
the morning"
They had come TO the church. He
stopped on the outskirts of the con-
vergng crowd at the front of the wide
stone steps before the great entrance
Are you not goi>g imp" she asked
with some astonishment, as she also
stopped.
lie smiled. "No; l didn't intend to.
I'm not a churchgoer. I'm out of prac-
ice"
Then experience a novelty.
can invite you into our pew,
for Aunt Agnes and my cous-
ms have already lief. only room
enough for me. But you might enjoy
standing in the gallery. Don't you like
Easter music?"
"Nes. Perhaps may drop in by and
by"
lie stood still, waiting for her to
leave him and enter the church. But
she did not move. He must have been
strangely unobservant not to have
noted the look of tenderness that sud-
denly burst all repressive bonds, in
stinctive and conscious, and glowed
eloquently in her eyes, not to have
penetrated to the deliberate design hid
den under the surface of her next
speech.
And that story being finished, has
it had many-any-sequels, with the
same hero?"
None" he answered. "None in six
years"
at began with lily?'
"A lily that still stands in Grecian
vase beside my mirror"
somewhat faded?"
Eyes. poor flower"
"But the old story being Finished"
speaking with increasing haste and
very low, land the hero still young,
what's to prevent beginning another
story-with another lily?"
She held out the flower iDs.her hand
The man, surprised at her manner and
her action, and not Immediately awake
to their significance, did not move to
speak.
The girl, appalled, by his hesitation,
! hastily drew back the proffered lily.
Her face became crimson, and she
turned and hurried confusedly from
! him, passing with the throng up
/ the steps and into the church.
In the yast arched interior her senses
met sui-iued light after the sunshine,
/ the hum of discreet conversation, the
soft footballs of worshipers going to
their seats, the rustic of women's
gowns, the odor of flowers, the colored
rays that fell obliquely from the
stained glass windows.
The man remained standing outside
bewildcred. After few seconds the
girls meaning dawned upon him.
Thereupon he began to twirl his mus
tache rapidly, in accordance with his
custom when in deep thought. Some
one touched him on the shoulder.
"IIello, old man! Going imp"
Eyes, yes, certainly" he said quickly,
and ran up the steps without turning
to look at the speaker. He pushed his
way up the stairs and forward to a
place on the front row of seats in the
gallery, feat difficult because of the
Easter crowd, but to him easy by reas IN
of his abstraction, which made him in.
if rent to the elbows, shoulders, at.
tire and toes of others.
Already the deep notes of the organ
were quivering on the air. A sum.
mary scan of the congregation failed
TO discriminate the girl of the lily from
the hundreds of women whose bright
headgear gave the congregation the
aspect of an indoor flower garden His
eyes rested upon the chancel, held by
the general effect of the grouped white
Resurrection lilies, callas, acacia S,
palms and yellow azalias. A cross of
lilies surmounted the floral pyramid.
To him this morning, all the world
was Easter lilies.
The clear voices of the choristers
rose from beneath him, in harmony
with the organ, as the white robed
boys moved up the aisle. But the
splendid anthem, "He Is Risen, 4"
seemed to him as coming from affair."
lie was meditating.
She was in love with him-his lily
like girl Her offer of the flower
might have passed for jest, but her
almost angry withdrawal OF IL had told
the truth, as in a fash. Why had he
not already seenp Clinging to the old
love had kept him blind. He reviewed
their acquaintance. from the frst meet