The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-27

1 trust her own daughter to his care. She reiterated 1t again and again. there was no impropriety whatever fn Miss Prisctlla's accepting his. profec- tion to and from the hall After afi, it was not as if she were invited Dy him. and expected to sit with him. And i, ir was such fine coneert--sucn pity to lose iti
 i When Mrs. Sandarsr had gone Miss I Priscilla dared not raise her eyes once l to the portraits. In Mrs. Sanders 1t seemed very simple, proper thing to say---thls yes" Out of her pres- ence 1t was fearsome thing indeed. Yet Miss Prisciila's word was given. and Hunters did not break their word. Miss Priscilla was ready for the con- cert just sixty eight minutes before the time, yet she spent all of those sixty-etght minutes in undoing and do- ing over what she had done by way of preparation. In. the end, her knees shook so that she could scarcely make her way down the two fighes of stairs' to the parlor. sthe appointed place of meeting As she entered the room she was conscious that Mrs. Sanders in- distinctly murmured two names. and then hurried away with nasty word about 'bread to sponge" It was then that Miss Priscilla did q most un- Hunter-like thing---she stared. More than that she said the very thing that came into her head.
 why, you're--not-oid!' she gasp ed, her startled eyes on the beard and threads of gray.
 The man, too, was nonplussed. The greeting in itself was disconcarting enouQh. to say nothing of his own stupefaction. Where was his old ladyf The gray hair was there. to be sure. but the winsome little face and figure might almost be that of woman of | twenty-five!
 1t was Miss Priscilla who first came back to conventlonailties.
 "I beg your pRrdon.' she said stiff ly but was--surprfsed. She hesi- tated, then made clean breast of 1t. T had supposed that my escort-was to be an old gentleman
 f The man laughed softly. He bowed very low: hes wanted to hids his eyes
 And T." he confessed. was looking for an old lady, a lady so old that had really hesitated to offer her the ticket at all, a lady whom expected to have to lead tenderly and with great care"
 Miss Priscilla laughed-the very best thing that could have happened for when Miss Priscilla laughed the
 
 nut to rout all the Hunter stfn pre- ciSion ia r9lrsJIstH aE tGW"llh ilii
 That was a t~ondarful evening" in all Miss Prisc.ilass starved two-score years of life there had never been an- other such. And the wonderful even~ ing was but the forerunner Of yet more wonderful days---an acquaintance that begins with laugh is Of more rapid growth than Is the ordinary kind. [.
 The dead and gone Hunters would have scarcely known Miss Priscilla. Indeed. Miss Priscilla scarcely knew herself. sn much did there seem to he worth living for--the blue of the sky, the clearness of the air. the reds and browns and yeliowsl of the early fall foliage. - AEf for Mir. Thomas, thel vio- linist--he was nice and kind. and she liked him. She was glad that she had met him. After all, it was better Co be acquainted with one's neighbors. even though they could not all be Hunters!
 From the very first Miss Priscilla had noticed something puzziing about the violinist It was an intangible something uron which she could not ntane her finger but 1t was there none the less. One day she asked him abcue | "Mr. Thomas. she began hesitating- iv "there is something queer. some thing almost--familiar about you. l can't place 1t: 1t may he the lift or an eyebrow. or a turn of the head. It. haunts me-"
 For A moment the man did not speak. then he began slowly.
 CT ar, saId "a reser>hie nv consin, Miss Hunter. There were two of us the same age. and much alike. Per- hans you have seen him at some time. He was in Boston twenty years ago or SO Did vou ever know--Tom Henry?"
 Miss Priscilla's fingers contracted spasmodicallv. then slowly relaxed., Her chin lifted. thtP Fti
 "Yes, knew Tom Henry" she said. ''rhat explains 1t. I think you do re"