The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-25

HOW uedI anu EOOu OF Mini ohe
| spoke earnestly. and her face was suf-
| fused with a warm light. There was
no doubt about her meaning what she
said.
1T was" John answered. INSTEAD
! lily. He knew how great was my need
| % a few moments companionableness
With-with-"
NO" she interrupted. 'I meant. dear
and good to me. because l think he
was thinking of me, and it was for
my sake he wanted us to meet"
It would have been hard to convince
a woman. If she had overheard this
speech, that Miss Sherwood's humility
was not the calculated affectation of a
coQUette. Sometimes a mans unsuspic-
ion is wiser, and Harkless knew that
she was not flirting with him. In adj
dition, he was not a fatuous man; he
did not extend the implication of her
words nearly so far as she would have
had him.
But 1 had met you" said he. long
ago"
What" she cried, and her eyes
danced. you actually remember"
Yes: do you?" he answered. 81
stood in Jones field and heard you
singing. and I remembered. II was a
long time since 1 had heard you sing.
~ was a rufTier of Flanders,
Anu lOuEHL LOi d AAOA III
You We're the dame of my captain
And sang to my hearts desire
Put that is the balladist's notion.
The truth is that you were a lady at
the Court Of Clovis, and 1 was a
heather captive. l heard you sing a
Christian hymn-and asked for bap-
tism.' BY a great effort he managed
to look as II he did not mean ii.
But she did not seem over-pleased
with his fancy, for, the surprise fading
from her face, "Oh, that was the way
you remembered" she said.
Perhaps it was not that way alone.
You won't despise me for being mawk-
ish tonight" he asked. Il haven't had
the chance for so long"
The night air wrapped them warm
~, and the balm of the little breezes
that stirred the foliage around them
was the smell of damask roses from
the garden. The creek tinkled over the
pebbles at their feet, and a drowsy
bird, half Weakened by the moon,
crooned dangerously in the sycamores.
The girl looked out at the flashing
water through downcast lashes. rs it
because it is so transient that beauty
is pathetic?" she said; because we
can never come back to it in quite
the same way? i am a sentimental
entirely leased out of you. is it? Be
sides, tonight is all a dream. 1t isn't
real, you know. You couldn't be
mawkish."
Her tone was gentle as a caress, and
it made him tingle to his finger-tips.
How do you known" he asked in a
low voice.
81 just know. Do you think I'm very
bold and forward'?" she said, dream
ilv.
1T was your song I wanted to be
sentimental about. am like one who
through long days of toil-only that
doesn't quite apply-'and nights de-
void of ease'-but l can't claim that
one doesn't sleep we'll here; it is Platt-
Ville's specialty-like one who
Still heard in his soul the music
OF wonderful melodies"
Those blessed old lines!" she said.
"Once a thing is music or poetry, all
the hand-organs and elocutionsts in
the world cannot ruin 1t, can they?
Yes; to live here, out of the world,
giving up the world, doing good and
working for others, working for a COM
munity as you do"
II am not quite shameless" he in
terrupted, smilingly. II was given a
I've served five years of it, which have
been made much happier than my de-
serts."
No she persisted, that is your
way of talking of yourself: l know
you would always run yourself down,
if one paid any attention to it, But to
give up the world, to drop out of it
without regret, to come here and do
what you have done, and to live the
life that must be so desperately dry
and dull for d man of your sort, and
yet to have the kind of heart that
makes wonderful melodies sing in it.
self-oh!" she cried, II say that is
fnel''
You do not understand" he return
ed, sadly, wishing, before her, to be
numerically just to himself. Il came
here because l couldn't make living
anywhere else. And the wonderful
melodies-I have known you only one
evening-and the melodies" He rose
to his feet and took a few steps to-
ward the garden. Come" he said.
Let me take you back. Let us go be-
fore I" he finished with a helpless
laugh.
She stood by the bench, one hand
resting on it; she stood all in the
tremulant shadow. She moved one step
toward him, and a single. long silver
OF liSnl pierced the SycamOreS and fell
upon her head. He gasped.
What was it about the melodies ?''
she said.
"Nothingl I don't know how to thank
you for this evening that you have
given me. IL suppose you are leav-
iEg tomorrow. No one ever stays here.
j"
What about the melodies?"
He gave it up. The moon makes
people insane!" he cried.
"If that is true" she returned,
then you need not be more afraid
than 1, because people is plural.
What were you saying, about
II had heard them-in my heart.
When l heard your voice tonight, I
knew that it was YOU who sang them
there-had been singing them for me
always"
Sol" she cried, gaily "All that de-
bate about a pretty speech" Then,
sinking before him in a deep courtesy,
II am beholden to you," she said.
do you think that no man ever made
little 1attery for me before to-
! night?"
At the edge of the orchard, where
they could keep an unseen watch on
the garden and the bank of the creek,
| Judge Briscoe and Mr.. Todd were en-
sconced under an apple-tree, the for
mer still armed with his shotgun.