The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1907-03-13

An hour or sn IIt"r Inwcrrr. lie met
~" -; ~ l.n", I',@'s d. = uppy,. !.
ely ..:'-ntii' I'D o,iu atDti!rr.
Can it bef' cried he, with boyish
incredulity. She extended her hand.
81 think it can" she answered, with
that little half smile on the corner of
her pure lip which he remembered so
we'll
Mrs. Burgess had escaped the half
kittenish challenge of the middle aged
woman who will not abjure conquest
She did not move to the shade of the
tree nor even open her parasol. She
stayed precisely where she was, with
a streak of harshly revealing sunlight
playing havoc with such loneliness as
time had left to her. After awhile the
warmth of the sun or some other
warmth she knew not of brought into
her pale cheeks that glow which James
Walsh's first roses had brought, oh, so
many years ago.
That night time and again Mr.. Walsh
drove away the memory of the WON
ans f1eeting half smile, yet it returned
to haunt him with all its old sweet
allurement. Finally he fell asleep and
dreamed Of her.
The next morning at breakfast he
found himself unaccountably agitated.
She was not in the room when he ar
rived, and all the other boarders, even
the pretty young girl with the quiet
gray eyes, seemed to him like so many
fgureheads. What if he had not really
seen her yesterday? What If it had
all just been in the dream last night2
But at last she came, and the beauty
of no radiant goddess could have
pierced so straight into his breast as
did this woman's tired loneliness. In
her simple white morning gown she
seemed to him the soul of sensitive del
icacy and serenity.
He recalled how, being essentially
| feminine, she always pitied suffering.
So now he made his strained wrist
pretext for being near her. She her
self ministered to him, binding it firm
ly and gently. Her breath, sweet as an
infants, touched his brow. They lunch
ed en- tete-a-tete and that afternoon
took a drive together in hired trap.
longed to a fortnight. During that time
his eyes followed Mrs. Burgess and
indeed his feet did also, very much
more frequently than she herself ap
proved. She thought OF her position
her children, of what might be ridicu-
lous in the situation, of the gossip and
espionage of the guests. Once or twice
she had heard a few scoffings, with a
note of mirth, at the devotion of Mr..
Walsh, and it had made her super
sensitive
But all of these trivial objections
vanished like mist before the sun on
the day when he laid his heart bare
before her, when he showed her that
beneath his apparent prosperity he was
hungry-he had always been hungry
for companionship and sympathy.
"And you could make me so happy,
oh, so happy, dear, if you would marry
me-" he was saying as they walked
slowly along the road the day before
his departure. Her arm lay lightly
upon his, her eyes were shining, and
there was warm girlish tint In her
pale cheeks.
"Won't you? need you So" he
pleaded. Just then they were passing
huge willow tree.
Now, yelled and Swallowed from the
world by the willows dropping green,
sitting on the lush grass were two
young people to whom love had just
sung it's first sweet song. Naturally
they'd started a bit when they heard
approaching footsteps, but they might
have spared the start. Neither of them
was observed.
II always did think Mrs. Burgess was
sweet looking, Billy" said Miss Ty-
son, absently pressing a cool, bending
branch of willow across her hot cheek,
'but just then she looked positively
beautiful"
eyes, sweetheart" acquiesced the
wise Billy. "Why shouldn't she? She's
having her st. Martins summer, you
see."