St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-06-08
MALLORY'S
READINESS
By Bertha Trevelyan
Copyright. 1908. by t. @. Mcclure.

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If it usually happened that Mallory
got what he wanted in the world, it
was by no means due to chance. When
he wanted anything he began by look
ing the field over carefully, noting all
the salient points-the advantages and
the disadvantages. Then with his feet
up and a cigar between his lips he
would consider all available methods
of securing the thing desired.
Having finally arrived at a decision
as to the best course of action to pur-
sue, he pursued it with an energy and
a single mindedness that were open to
no Encouragement, admitted no defeat.
And the result was that, as life goes,
Mallory was accounted lucky.
He was a handsome, vigorous man
of fifty when, business affairs making
it necessary for him to spend num-
Der of months in New York, letter
of Introduction secured him the very
delightful privilege of rooms with the
Fosters, whose story of waning for
tunes he had heard from the friend
who sent him to them. The ominous
length of his upper lip was hidden I'M
der a short gray mustache, or Miss
Foster would have known from the
first. that it was useless to oppose him
once his mind was set upon anything.
The romance of his youth was a
beautiful memory, thing as faint
and elusive as the scent of lavender.
But he had been loyal to it for twenty
years, having been left at thirty wild
over with two children. AS he sat in
the great dim drawing room where
everything was eloquent of other days
he noticed several things-touches I'M
usual in stiff city drawing rooms, but
which made for LONELINESS. He sighed
with a sudden usefulness altogether
out OF keeping with his height, breadth
and foridness.
In the midst Of his reverie Miss Eos
ter appeared, her delicate slightness
heightened by the massive doorway in
which she stood framed for a moment.
AS she rose to greet her he wondered
idly what could have given her that
harassed look, this little woman with
the oval face and the piled up hair.
Her smile, he thought, was oddly shy
and girlish, and in q few minutes they
were talking with the ease of old ac-
Quaintance.
With a businesslike air that sat
| amusingly on her she showed him the
rooms that she and her mother rented
to exc out tlfeir small and uncertain
income, and the next day found him
installed in them.
Often during the following months
he would spend an hour with the moth
er and daughter, noting with hidden
l Ill
air of elderliness. She would forget
and laugh and chat gayly at times;
then, in a moment, she seemed to re-
member that she was no longer young,
and she became In a trice the prosaic,
careworn woman again, drawing her
| mantle of years ungraciously about
her. 1t was as if she had determined
| not to be surprised by old age and so
had rushed out to meet it.
| Her references to herself were slight
| ing always, as if to one to whom moth
| ing but the dregs of life were left,
whom romance could not possibly
| touch, whose role was one of duty IN
touched by grace.
At first Mallory took her at her own
estimate, concluding that she was about
| his own age. Then one night she ap-
| peared in a gown of flmy violet, with
| her brown hair rising in q swirl above
her face, and he looked at her with
puzzled but admtring wonder. She
| turned her head, and the surprise of
her profile fairly made him start. 1t
was singu1arly delicate and youthful,
with a small high bred nose and full
| Tipped mouth.
toll
| that she could not be more than forty,
| if she were that. But by the way in
| which she was always putting forward
the young girls of her acquaintance it
was evident that she thought herself
| too old a woman to be of interest to
| any man.
"She belongs to the old regime" NAL
| lory soliloquized, "and has probably
considered herself an old lady ever
since she emerged from her teens. She
hasn't been able to assimilate this
| bachelor woman idea" And he smiled
| to himself.
BY the way, Miss Marion" he said
| nonchalantly, 81 have tickets for the
| opera tomorrow night. Be good and
| come too"
There was fash Of surprise in her
| face that for one brief, feeting moment
| said frankly that he must have taken
| leave of his senses. Then courtesy
| prevailed, and after hesitating for an
| appreciate moment, in which it was
| apparent that she was casting about in
her mind for some plausible excuse.
| she accepted.
When the time arrived she was dis
| turbed by an uncomfortable conscious
| ness. She had the air of person who
| felt that she was going to be a subject
| Of quickly exchanged glances and half
| laughing comment. All this Mallory
OWNED, and he put forth every effort
| to make her forget herself to such good
| purpose that by the end of the evening
| she was laughing and chatting as un-
| concernedly as If Mrs. Grundy did not
| exist