Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-04-08

The thermometer registered 80 de-
grees in the shade.
Sir Humphrey passed the time pleas
antly by instructing his companion in
the method of making money on the
stock exchange. She understood every
thing, so wonderfully did he explain
things.
She said so.
He had endeavored to enlarge
Clarissas mind on the same subject
on the day previous. She had not un-
derstood him. Sir Humphrey had no
doubt of that
She had made a foolish remark to
the effect that she preferred the
methods of burglars. They, at least,
took their chance of getting caught by
a policeman or shot by the man they
were robbing.
In the evening, when the moon was
just clear of the tree tops, Clarissa
walked down to the river to meet her
cousin. 1t was at the urgent request
of that young lady she did SO.
give promised Gus to go for a moon
light row, but pa must think you're
with me. He don't mind my being
late, then" she had said, as they left
the dinner table. BE sure you're there
at nine, so that we can come in to-
gether, and don't let pa see you alone"
So while pa slipped his port in after
dinner contentment, Clarissa wandered
In the rose garden and dreamed of the
lover that was to come.
She did not dream of the lover that
was coming.
Sir Humphrey finished his cigar and
then went out into the garden. Mr..
Latimer said to the sharer of his joys
and sorrows-but not his port-that
he hoped Clarissa would have the
sense to come in. Her health was too
delicate for the night air.
1t was a maxim of Sir Humphreys
that, when your mind was made up to
certain course, it was best to act
promptly. He went in search Of
Clarissa.
He came behind her as she stood on
the bank of the silver river, lost in
sweet dreaming. The soft, white even
ing gown, made in the quaint, beautiful
fashion of a past generation, showed
the lines of her graceful figure.
She would look we'll surrounded by
the ancient carvedoak furniture he
had bought in Tottenham Court road.
He was standing at her side before
she recognized his presence. He looked
very big and imposing in his evening
clothes. A large diamond sparkled in
his shirt front. Was this the lover of
her dreams?
When he had business in hand, it was
not Sir Humphreys custom to beat
about the bush. After remarking on
the beauty Of the evening-so much
was customary even in strictly bust
ness conversation-he asked her if she
would be his wife.
For a moment she did not reply. Sir
Humphrey recognized the fact that she
was very beautiful and that loneliness
and the moonlight threw him little
off his balance. He felt he wanted to
take her in his arms and kiss her. The
matter was getting beyond the strict
regime Of business.
He had never wanted to kiss any one
before
1t could, of course, be only a mat
ter Of minutes-a little maiden hesita-
tion-before he had the right to do So.
Minutes? Clarissa was speaking
"Do you know my father, Sir Hum
phrey?
mo, have not that pleasure"
He anticipated no trouble in that
quarter. Was he not Sir Humphrey
Potter?
Il think you will not-cannot-re-
new this proposal when tell you that
that"
"Yes?" urged Sir Humphrey as
Clarissa paused.
HE Is in prison" she said. in a
voice scarcely audible, and turning
herself away from him.
in prison?" gasped Sir Humphrey.
There was silence. A faint breath
stirred the rushes and died away again.
A wakeful corncrake creaked once and
then subsidized, as If he were alarmed
by the noise he made in that great
stiffness.
Sir Humphrey was thinking. He
Coulu HOl ueC1u6 Ou lue ASIduI WHdl
he should do. But the moonlight still
exercised its power over him. He still
wanted to kiss her.
Latimer should have told him. II
was monstrous to have introduced him
to this girl without word as to her
fathers disgrace. She was, he sup
posed, living on the charity Of the
Latimers. There would be faint of
crime in her blood, and perhaps if he
married her 1t would appear in her
children. The thought was horrible.
But he wanted Clarissa.
When, at last, he fell asleep, he had
almost made up his mind to marry her.
But when he awoke in the morning
he found his love much less obtrusive
and his business instincts predomi-
nant Sentiment had faded with the
moonlight.
He wondered how he could have hest
tated. Such a marriage was impossible.