The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-12-23

Inc Ted-roofed village lay low down in
the hollow. Its grey-olue smoke rose
against the green and brown of the hills.
The green was laced with silver threads
when the sunlight caught the streams. 1t
was remote place. where people lived
very slowly. Sonia came there-from Lii
To'lia TO England. from the romantic to
The commonplace. from the haunted castle
20 the country rcrtory.
The rector was the Rev. William Han
nell a widower. precise. dosmatic and
kindly. His sister kept house for him
Adelaide unmarried, more precise, more
dcsmatic and less kindly. His son, Nor
ton, a youth in his seventeenth year, lived
1T home. DC had been educated at home.
and possessed most of the many disad-
Vsntages To loe derived from such an edu-
cation. Yet nature had made him-though
he did not know it-a youth who looked
well, and carried himself well. With them
lived 1Jucie Sarrant, a school girl of -four
teen, the rector's ward Her hair was
pale gold. and she had no remarkable
beauty, and she was at once meek and
passionate
To them entered Sonia, ana remained
for one month. She went away laughing.
Yet she still writes to her godfather, the
Tector. She writes less often to Miss
Adelaide HannelI. She never answers
the letters that Norton writes TO her, but
she refers TO him in her letters to his
father. There is never word about lucie
SaITant.
The broken thread OF their normal life
has. in the case OF the old people at any
rate, been joined again. For them life
goes on as before, though they recall
things. Sonia said Sonia did
do you remember how she looked when
=" These are common phrases with
them.
They had never asked Sonia TO come
They We're hospitable. but they Were also
humble, and they had no initiative Sonia
Wrote and told her godfather that she
was coming TO England, and would stay
with them for week If it was not dis
pleasing. Sonia's mother also wrote,
apologetiCally. Sonia was anxious TO
see England, and the Rev William Han
nell was SO very kind and had always
taken such an interest in his goddaughter,
whom he had never seen. BY the way,
she enclosed Sonia's last photograph
Aunt Adelaide cut the pages eff her
Edna I.yaii novel with an olive-wood pa
y1er-knife on which The word Gethsemane
had been painted in Hebrew character.
She heard The two letters read. She saw
the photograph. She said very little but
Sonia presented herself to Aunt Adelaide's
mind as a distinct opportunity for doing
good.
The boy Norton also said very little. He
still held in dis hand the copy of Sonia's
photograph, which had been handed
around. He stared at it with big eyes.
What would She think OF him? She look
ed rich and insolenr~tn the photograph.
He wished his clothes were not so shah
by and wondered whether she would dis
pise him. I-ucie Sarrant looked over
Norton's shoulder, and was angry at his
absorption.
rector frankly.
Beauty is not everything" Adelaide
replied. Her thin lips We're pressed to-
gether. She saw evil in the face, evil
that might be corrected by judicious and
aunt-like counses. There was no in
stance of remarkable personal beauty in
the village until Sonia came.
She cane-a red Pagan into gray Chris
tianity- Her hair was darls brown; her