Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1904-04-27
MALLORY'S
READINESS
By Bertha Trevelyan
= Copyright, laOs, by T. c. Mcclure.
81 =,

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 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 il with an energy and
a single mindedness that We're open to
no discourag cement, 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 a mum
Der of months in New York, a 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 omlnous
length of his upper lip was hidden un.
| 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 n
| beautiful memory. thing as faint
! and elusive as the scent of lavender.
| But he had been loyal TO 1t 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 thlngs-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 few minutes they
We're talking with the ease of old ac
| qualntance.
With a buslnesslike air that sat
amuSingly on her she showed him the
rooms that she and her mother rented
10 exc out their 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
IF.4l
| 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 trice the prosaic.
| careworn woman again, drawing her
| mantle OF years ungraciously about
| her. 1t was as IL she had determined
not TO be surprised by old age and so
| had rushed out 10 meet ii.
| Her references to herself were slight
ing always. as II 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 I'M
| touched by grace.
AT first Mallory took her at her own
| estimate. concluding that she was about
| his own age. Then one night she APP
| peared in Il gown of filmy violet. with
| her brown hair rising in u swirl above
her face. and he looked at her with
! puzzled but admiring wonder She
turned her head. and the surprise OF
her profile fairly made him start. II
| was singulariy delicate and youthful,
| with a small high bred nose and full
| Tipped mouth.
| His speculative glance now told him
! 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 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 assimllate this
bachelor woman idea" And he smiled
! to himself.
by the way. Miss Marion" he said
nonchalantly, Il have tickets for the
! come too
| There was a fash of surprise in her
face that forlone brief. feeting moment
said frankly that he must have taken
leave of his senses. Then courtesy
| prevailed, and after hesitating for an
appreciable 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 nm.