The Winslow mail., 1897-05-08
She sat on the floor.

governed by them instead of following
the dictates of their hearts, like the
wiser Mrs Peytee.
Nevertheless, thanks to natures con-
tempt for the theorizing of her children,
they had made some progress in their
knowledge each of the others state of
mind
Everybody knows that weddings are
contagious. When Harry that afternoon
on the gallery listened to the discussion
of the coming festivity at old Harkins',
he had what he took-perhaps had bet
ter say mistook-for a small but happy
inspiration. He made up his mind at
once that on that night he would declare
himself to Charley. He would take her
to the wedding in the only buggy that
was to be had in Overtonia. Harkins'
place was two miles from the hotel Oh
rough road. 1t was strange if coming
home that night he could not find fe-
licitous moment for-what he was going
to say and what he was going to do-for
| decisive steps, let US say. An evening
buggy ride exactly suited his ideas of
proper occasion for serious lovemaking.
He had regretted more than once that
life on the mountain offered so few such
opportunities, but the roads were so bad
that in the public mind only some def
mite necessary end justified recourse to
travel on wheels. In the fullness of his
heart Harry embeilished his little plan
with various decorative features. Among
other things, he thought that he would
send off at once to Nashville for an en-
| gagement ring, so as to surprise Charley
with the promptness of its appearance.
No really grownup person, with brains
enough to learn from experience, would
/ ever have dared to tempt fate by such
1 Grass confidence as this, and more pen
etratingly tactful youth would have
known that Charley, even if she accept
/ ed him, would not be altogether pleased
by this particular form of foresight
But Harry was i'll fact, but boy
and one sure to be generally astray as
to what men have been pleased to chris
ten the mysteries of woman's heart,
though dare say, if women had been
managing the worlds affairs and liter
| ature for the last several thousand
/ years, we should be hearing just as
much about the unfathomable mysteries
of mans heart. the fact simply being
that the mystery lies in those arrange
ments of an ever inscrutable Providence,
by which it is established that the sexes
shall be eternally divided, however ap-
pearances may sometimes contradict the
fact, by an impossible gulf of mutual
misunderstanding.
When Harry was seized with these
dreams, he was so moved by them that
he turned away from the agitated group,
/ laughing and chattering about the Har-
kins family, and went and stood peer
ing through the honeysuckle vine at the
other end of the gallery. Charley called
to him, and he did not hear her:
''Mr Harry" cried one of the
other girls, Charley wants to know
what you are going to wear"
Excuse me-" said Harry, coming
| toward them, but then he forgot to
make any reply, in the distraction of
seeing Charley's brown eyes turned up
to his, and unable to endure just then
the glancing frivolity of the talk he
| picked up his hat and strolled down the
walk.
Charley felt distinctly miserable that
she had been snubbed, so she laughed
with merry abandon at the information
that Art Harkins never, under any cir
cumstances, took off his hat and would
undoubtedly eat Dade's wedding supper
with it on, and then she danced away
into the big empty hall, dragged her.
self slowly up the stairs and crept off
into an unfrequented garret. In the
crowded house, this, since she fell in
love and needed one, had become her
place of meditation. She was over
wrought by the unaccustomed and star
thing amount of sensation her days now
brought her, and by dramatically pic
turing various unpleasant possibilities
to herself rs probabilities, though not
In the least really believing in them,
she managed to relieve herself by few
tears, and then she crept over to the
one small square low window that lit
the place. She sat on the floor and press
ed her face against the glass and gave
herself up to further dreaming but now
OF vague, sweet possibilities, probabili-
ties, surely, surely!
There Were no other windows in the
house that looked down into the corner
of the green yard she saw. 1t was shell
tered by big trellised grapevine, and
beneath its shade was an old garden
bench.
When Harry found chance to drag
Mrs Peytee to this spot for confiden-
tial interview, it was under the delu-
sion that it was invisible to all indoors.
He and Mrs. Peytee were always very
good friends, and now, seized with a
sudden need of sympathetic ear, it
was to her that he turned That idea
about the ring that had slipped through
his head became fixed now by nothing
more or less personal to himself or Char
ley than the chance he saw of making
it an easy pretext for telling his tale to
Mrs. Peytee.
Come, sit around by the grapevine
with me-" he said when. turning back
to the house in his restless tramping,
he met her in the yard.
Mrs. Peytee was always gracious, and
she took his arm with flattering air of
possession and interest, and dragging
her fresh trailing muslins after her she
sought with him the seclusion of the
rustic bench beneath the shadow OF the
grapevine.