Middletown transcript., 1907-01-26

"a, k(ieeA - " Y " y -
liled. You do not yet
Nv sweet and lovable our
is
1t / knew well that she can
copEara with my beantlf1l
lately Ruth!
She flushed with pleasure
while she said, smiling You do
not believe what ! have told you,
then. Just wait and see !
He had not long 10 wait. All
most as Ruth was speaking the
old stage came numbering into
sight, ard soon had stupped be.
fore the door. Then there was
futter, q rush, d little outburst
of happy iaughterand Mimi
was in her sisters arms
Mortimer looked on, half jeal-
Gus and half amused
But after moment Ruth IN
clasped Minis encifcling arms
and said Mimi, darling, | want
to Introduce you 10 my friend,
Tortimer Lacey
So for the first time Mortimer
ssaw that lovely blossom face up
turned to his. And he noticed
with an artists quickness the
merry eyes, the small, straight
nose. the smiling lips just parted
over the small, white, cleaning
teeth, the dimpling chin aud the
GROWING waves Of sunny hair
above the low, white brow.
She was lovely to look at. A
merry child, he thought, when
the low ripple of her laughter
broke upon his ear.
But my poor, sweet little nam,
ma she cried a moment later ]
must go to her !! And she darted
from them. up the stairs to The
room where the patient invalid
lay waiting and watching for her
darling's home coming.
Ruth turned to Mortimer with
a bright, questioning smile
Yes, she is very charming, he
admitted, half grudgingly But
she reminds me of a humming
bird
You do not know Mimi yet,
said Ruth. Where once she
fixes her affection she never
wavers. The child, for all her
gayety, is true as steel.
Mortimer and Ruth had been
playmates in early childhood, and
her first real grief had been his
going away to school At first
he had come home again at vaca-
ton time, but by and by came
college days and then long years
of art study and travels abroad.
And Mortimer had returned this
spring time, on a sketching trip
to the home Of his boyhood, for
the first time in many years.
There are places on our coast
which change but little in the
course of years, and Bay Point
was one Of these. But the peo-
pie change. Mortisners old
home had long ago been broken
up, and Of all his cllildhood's
associates he had found but one
remaining. IH some odd corner
of his memory the name Ruth
Pemberton had fingered. And
the lovely, stately girl who had
greeted him as a friend instead
of the utter stranger he had ut
first felt himself to be, had sccm.
ed the fairest creature he had
ever known.
She had seemed from the first
his ideal realized, and be was
jealous Of her many household
cares which prevented him from
enjoying the sunshine Of her
presence every hour Of the day.
He was jealous, 100, Of the IN
valid stepmother and Ruth's de-
votion to her, and Of the absent
young half sister
Ruth's lose for her early play.
mate grew and olessomed as
naturally and as beautifully as
ge rose vines over the arbor
here he had told her If his love.
Itshad seemed as il no tnortals'
mess had ever been - COM
plete as Their 5 And Mortimer
felt that any change must mar
it ID some way 81 lie had begged
thai for q time it Should be i
secret between tlss iiselxts. Ruth
had given way to his wishes
After Mimi S homecoming Ii
was niatnral tl,at tiIe girl should
be much ii The society s.f lef
sisters $ artist friend Il was
natural that The insalid mother,
not knowing of her stepdaug b.
ter's engagement ii Mortim, i
Lacey should begin To bliId np