The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-29
1OdeSt@1o

hear the soft musical voice ana lo NoH- der when this pretty boy would speak of his love for her,
 But the weeks passed and no word of love was spoken and the woman in her began to ask why this should be. She was certain as she could be that her beauty had dazzled the lad when first he came 10 Five Gables" She remembered what fervid glanees he had turned upon her when first they met, how his eyes had expressed unbounded admiration, nay worship such was unknown in the cir cles in which she moved. If this silent adoraton hattered her for the moment, honesty played no little part in its sue cess-for though there had been lovers who looked deep into her heart before, the majority carried but liabilities to her feet, and. laying them there, would glad lv have exchanged them for her father cheques to salve their financial wounds. In Alhan she had met for the first time | natural English lad who had no secrets to hide from her. He will worship the ground upon which 1 walk" she had said in tho mood of sundry novelettes Dor rowed from her maid. And this, in truth, the lad might very well have come to do.
 But the weeks passed and Alban re- mained silent. and the declaration she had desired at first as an amusement now became a vital necessity to her fast HE NdnltYs i1GlltNlub AilAl Nlio s'i roundings at Hampstead, the formallty, the servants the splcndor of Five Gu- bes" forbade that little comedy of love for which she hungered, she wont off, Tn her fathers absence, to their cottage al Henley, and compelling Alban to follow her she played Phyllis to his Corydon with an ardor which could not have been surpassed. Aping the schoolgirl, she would wear her hair upon her shoulders, sb hare her sleeves to the suns of June. The rose garden became the order of her delights You shall love me" she said to herself -and in the determination a passion who'll ly vain and not a little hazardous found its birth and prospered.
 For hours together now, she would compel this unconscious slave to row her in the silent reaches or to hide with her in backwaters to which the mob rarely came. Deluding him by the promise that her father was returning shortly from Paris and would come to Henley imme- diately upon his arrival, she led Alban to forget the days of waiting, petted him as though he had been her lover through the years, invited him hundred times a day to say, "I love you-you shall be my wife"
 In his turn he remained silent and amazed, tempted sorely by her beauty, uol uIlutISldlldii1B dllu yet btoiA ms NO A'7 derstand why he could not love her. True indeed, that the image of another would intervene sometimes-a little figure in rags, wan and pitiful and alone; but the environment in which the vision of the past had moved, the slums the all leYs, the mean streets, these would hedge the picture about and then leave the dreamer averse and shuddering. Not there could liberty be found again. The tG He1dG in tho derer when again he dared il alone.
 Alban remembered one night above all others of this strange secusion, and that was a night of womans humiliation. There had been great hustle all day, the coming of oarsmen and of coaches to Henley, and all the aquatic renaissance which prefaces the great regatta. Their own cottage. lying just above the bridge with Il shady garden extending to the Wal ters edge, was no longer the place apart that it had been. Strangers now an chored little way from their penthouse and consumed monstrous packets or sandwiches and the contents of abundant bottles. There were houseboats being tugged up and down the river little groups of rowing men upon the' bridge all day, the music of banjos by night, and lanterns glowing In the darkness Anna watched this pretty scene as one whn would really take young girls part in it. She simulated an interest in the TOW ing about which she knew nothing at all visited the house boats of such Of her friends as had come down for the re- eatta. and was, in Willy Forests words, as ''stittish as a two-year-old that had slipped its halter Forrest had been to and fro from the stable near Winchester on several occasions. He comes to tell me that l am about to lose q fortune, and I am beginning to hate him. Anna said; and on this occasion she enjoyed that dl- Vertng and unaccustomed recreation known as speaking the truth.
 There had been such visit as this upon the morning of the day when Anna spoke intimately to Alban of his future and her own. Her mood now abandoned itself utterly to her purpose. The close int macy Of these quiet days had brought her to the point where n real if momen- tarY passion compelled her to desire this boys love as she had never desired any thing in all her life. To bring him to that declaration she sought so ardently, to feel his kisses upon her lips, to play the young lovers part if it were but for a day, to this folly her vanity had driven her. And now the opportunities for words were not denied She had spent the afternoon in the bactwaters up by ship lake. there had been a little dinner after ward with the old crone who served them so usefully as chaperone-a dependent who had eyes but did not see, ears which. as she herself declared. would think scorn to listen" Amiable dame, she WIS in bed by o'clock, while Alban and Anna were lying in punt at the waters edge, listening to the music of q distant guitar and watching the twinkling lights far away below the bridge where the boat houses stand.
 A Chinese lantern suspended upon a short boat-hook cast a deep crimson glow upon the faces of those who might well have been young lovers. The river rip pied muscally against the square bows of their ugly but comfortable craft But few passed them by and those were also seekers after solitude, with no eyes for their co-religionists in the amatory gos- pei Alban. wholly fascinated by the si- Ienee and the beauty of the scene, lay at Anna's feet, so full of content that he did not dare to utter his thoughts aloud The girl caught the tiny wavelets in her outstretched hand and said that Corr don had become blind.
 Do you like Willy Forest" she asked do you think he is clever, Alban?" q qnestion. the answer to which would not interest her at all if it did not lead to others Alban, in his turn, husbandlns the secrets, replied evasvely;
 Why should 1 think about him? He IS not a friend of mine. You are the one to answer that, Anna. You like him-I nave heard you say so."
 Never believe what a girl says. adore Willy Forrest because he makes me laugh l am like the poor little white rabbit which Is fascinated by the great black wriggly snake. Some day 1t will