The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-05-15

one of his castles in the air. 1t would
be time enough to speak to Patty when
the house was built.
"Headache again, Mamma Morris?"
said he. "Try DR.. jays Bitters.
Children cry for them. Aunt Marcia'a "a
got bottle-bitter AS pausing for
synonym.
Gas poverty said Patty.
eyes, bitter as poverty. I've tasted
both. They are tonic to the nerves;
they defy death and keep old age at a
respectful distance"
"They must be the Elixir of outh," :"
said Anita. "Where do you get them?"
"At Mortar & Pestle's." And then
Lena lighted the double burner and
Rob produced his pencils and paper
and began making a plan of the MAR
ouand Mansion,n to be erected when
bis ship came in, asking Patty's advice
about this and that, about closets, the
pantry, the boudor, their two heads
bent together over the task.
"We'll throw out bay window
here,' lie said; won't we Patty? And
we will have veranda for moonlight
nights and balcony for whispering
lovers made And as long as the ma
terials are so cheap, | think we will
add on a conservatory. eh, Patty? so
you may always wear rose in your
hair; and studio for Lena at the top
Of the house," till they were all offer
ing suggestions, and the mansion
looked as if it bad broken out with an
eruption of fantastic gables, windows
and wings, and had become an ana
chronism in architecture, where the
style of one era jostled that of another.
But it was not Rob who strolled
into the schoolroom up at the Hon.
Mr.. Grundy's when the bell rang for
recess; who, under one pretext or an
other, beguiled Patty to linger after
hours, till the dusk shut them in alone
with the stars, while he walked home
ward with her, repeating some Incl
dents of bis travels, reciting some pas
sionate sonnet of his own 1t was not
Rob who left rose on her desk one
morning with love verse; when the
sentiment is pretty and personal, one
does not blame the poet because he is
not Milton; one is TOO apt to think
be is.
Rob had never attempted a rhyme
in his life. If Mrs. Grundy, junior,
had not been summering at the Swiss
Lakes no doubt she would have de-
vised way to end the love making of
her nephew, but there was nobody to
interfere; old Madame Grundy was too
deaf and purblind to remember that
such things as youth and love existed.
That Paul Spencer, with his poetic in
spirations, his fathomless eyes, his
worldly lore, his experience and popu-
larity, should sue for word with a
poverty stricken governess, should
hang upon her will and court her pres
ence, captlvated Patty's imagination
and touched her heart. They would
sit over the embers of the schoolroom
fire while he bewitched her with stories
from the operas and sung their most
love lorn airs in his fine tenor till the
tears stood in Patty's pretty eyes, or
be would bring his violin at odd mo-
ments and lmprovise some tender mel
ody to be dedicated to her, till she be-
gan to believe him an unappreciated
Mozart. Perhaps the fact that Paul
Spencer's wife would possess and enjoy
everything from which Patty Morris
had been cut off may have lent her
hero halo, may have made his elo-
quence more eloquent, his tongue more
persuasive. Bat if it was so Patty
was unconscious Of it; there was moth.
ing mercenary in her nature, she was
only human, although Rob thought
her divine. She had a conviction that
if Paul had been born a plowboy he
would have found bis place on Parnas-
sus; that though he should waken one
day to find her nature too narrow and
incomplete for his co,apanonship, she
should not blame him oyer-much, nor
unlove him, but carry the remembrance
of her happiness shut into her heart
like faded rose pressed in a book of
poems. 1t is perhaps we'll that We be-
gin life with an oversuppIy Of senti-
ment, we should otherwise have so lit.
tie left at the journeys end Very
likely Patty never thought of Rob as
lover at all; he was the friend of the
family, schoolmate, about whom there
were no reserves or mysteries; perhaps
he even seemed commonplace and un-
finished beside Mr. Spencer, with his
invulncrable sef-possession, his ac: