The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1906-04-03
THE GHOST OF
A CHANCE

| said, with sign. "Oh, dear! / won
der why we have to skip all the good
| hines"
1T is in punishment for our uncom-
mitted SINS" Bess answered, with q
toss of the head. "All our sins must
be uncommitted. I'm sure we've been
brought up more strictly than ever
nuns were. Sometimes when l think
over it all get fairly afraid for US two.
We've been SO proper from our cradles
we must break out after awhile"
Hush! Aunt Wilton would have q
At If she heard you," Selma said. do
you think she was ever young, Bessf
can't fancy her less than sixty and
severe, yet do believe she means only
to be kind and really wants us to be
happy"
Yes, In her way, which isn't mine
nor anybody else's," Bess broke out
passionately Her way is to have
everything just 80 365 days In the year.
We have all sorts of material good
things-we eat well, sleep well, dress
well-but no liberty to get the good Of
our best frocks last summer Not
once! And It's going to be the same
this season. People never ask US to
things any more because they know we
won't come"
Il don't mind that SO much a. the
flowers. Shouldn't you like, just once,
to run riot in the garden, pulling what
ever you likedT
You hereto! Aunt Wilton would
have serious doubts as to your sanity
II she heard that. l think she loves
flowers, not because they are flowers
and beautiful, but because they are her
own
THE same as her nieces," deeper
voice said from an ambush Of lilac
hedge. Next minute the hedge shook
violently. 1t was old and gnarly, be-
ing party hedge and therefore beyond
Wilton control. The end Of the shak-
ings was young man, slim and mer-
~ eyed, who bowed very low to tho
two young women, then said deprecat-
ingly: Don't freeze me because
eavesdropped. know how bad It ID,
but really this time the end justines
It. Pm committee of one, self ap-
pointed, to find out just why the incest
girls in town stay out Of everything"
"Will you listenT Bess adjured Sc
lima, whose eyes were dancing, though
her face was preternaturally grave az
she answered, Everybody overlooks
Joe Hartwelrs fibs because he abs 20
nicely"
Hartwell laughed. His father being
Aunt Wilton's lawyer, he knew the
Ford girls, Aunt Wilton's nieces, better
than anybody In Caswell town. It was
a knowledge that ran back to the mud
pie period, although the Fords know
no more of mud pies and their making
than could be gathered from watching
him enviously through crannies of the
hedge.
Now, for two years he had been won
dering how they had escaped their
bringing up. Selma, he was sure, was
full of mad longings for life and free
dom. About Bess he was not so sure.
She sang and laughed like a human
sunbeam-sang and laughed herself
into the deepest depths Of his heart.
Therefore he resented bitterly her iso-
lation. The sisters would some day
inherit Aunt Wilton's more than CON-
Portable fortune. 1t CALLED him to think
that people would say Bess had mar
ried him through lack of other lovers;
maybe also that his father had encour-
aged his client to keep her heiresses
so secluded out of regard for the inter-
ests of his son. Beyond all that,
though, was the rebellion against thus
winning by default. How could Bess
be sure she really loved him when she
had had no chance of measuring him
against other lovers?
1t was with hope of giving her that
chance he had asked his chum, Denni-
son, for months visit Dennison was
handsome, witty and winning. His
coming. duly advertised, had set social
Caswell all a-fiutter. There were al
ready things planned for all the first
fortnight. Selma and Bess had been
discussing the most spectacular of
them, the lawn party at the old Yer
non place. 1t was to come off by moon
light, aided and abetted by japanese
lanterns. There would be dancing, Of
course, and supper In the big hall of
the deserted mansion. Everybody was
to go in costume and masked. Except
for that, Selma and Bess might have
had faint hopes. But Aunt Wilton's
face was flint toward masking. 1t
q 70 ho.- ~ 0k4..
the theater.
II Hartwell had known that - but
speculation Is idle. He looked blank
indeed when Selma let him see how
the land lay. "And l got it up mostly
so you might dance your ILL.," he said
sorrowfully. How l wish | could
wash the slate clean and begin all
over! Such a great lark / hoped we
might have, and now to think"-
Such a great lark we will havew
cried Bess, springing up and whirling
about in front of the garden bench.
Hartwell stared at her. Selma looked
puzzled. Bess stopped short in her
dancing to put her finger on her lip
and say. nodding sagely between the
words: Promise not to faint when
you see US. Joe. l think we're coming,
though we have just the ghost of
chance"
The lawn party had to take its full
moon on trust So many clouds sailed
in the sky the lantern lights shone all
undimmed. The thick, lowery night
kept the crowd close about the hOnsa
1t was big and substantial, and, II the
worst came in the shape of rain, dane
Ing could go on inside True, a few
nervous persons said that would hard
ly do. OF course 1t was all idle talk.
None the less there had been talk of q
Vernon ghost
Two ghosts indeed-those Of the Yer
non twin sisters, who had loved the
same sweetheart and had refused to
marry him out Of regard for the other.
They had lived to a great age, fading
and falling at last like withered roses
there in the family mansion. They had
been dead twenty years, with none but
good words 10 follow them II they
did not sleep peacefully In their sunny
graves. then were pure lives and good
deeds vain. Notwithstanding there
was the talk, now one, new another
| glimpsed them walking hand In hand
up the broad stairway or fitting at
dusk through the overgrown rose gar
! den.
Dennison heard all this avidiy. He
liked whatever was old world and I'M
usual Perhaps that was why, when