The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1907-01-23

Ca pdDIC Vi VlclOFy.
He had been spending August alone
up in the mountains, and he had en-
joyed month of fishing. tramping and |
dreaming to his hearts content. On /
bis way home he'd stop for week or |
two az certain little hotel reported to
have good cuisine and rest a strained |
wrist before going back to business.
CHANGING casually over the hotel reg
lister, he saw the name of Mrs. John !
Burgess. There arose in the mans /
breast a curious sensation, but he pull /
ed himself together.
How absurd he upbraided himself /
as he walked away from the desk. As /
Ii there were not hundreds of John |
Burgesses. Why. | might even have |
coaxed myself into believing that | re
membered her handwriting
An hour or SO later, however, he met |
her On the lawn. Their eyes unexpect- |
eddy encountered one another.
Can it be-? cried he, with boyish /
| incredulity. She extended her hand.
Il think it cam she answered. with
that little half smile on the corner of
her pure lip which he remembered so
WELL
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
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 wom-
ans fieeting 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 tie room when he ar
rived, and ali the other boarders, even
the pretty young girl with the quiet
gray eyes, seemed to him like so many
figureheads. What if he had not really
seen her yesterday? What if it had
all just been in the dream last night?
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 a
pretext for being near her. She her
self ministered to him, binding it firm
iy and gently. Her breath, sweet as an
ed en- tete-a-tete and that afternoon
took drive together in hired trap.
Mr.. Walsh's intended week was pro-
longed to 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 ridcu-
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 lie showed her that
beneath his apparent prosperity he was
hungry-he had always been hungry
for companionship and sympathy
And you could make me 50 happy
oh, so happy, dear. if you would marry
me-" he was saying rs they walked
slowly along the road the day before
his departure Her arm lay lightly
upon his, her eyes We're shining, ana
there was warm girlish tint in her
pale cheeks.
Wont you: ] need You son' he
pleaded. Just then they were passing
a huge willow tree.
Now. yelled and Swallowed from the
world by the willows dropping green
sitting on the lush grass were twn
young people TO whom love had just
sung its first sweet song. Naturally
they'd started bit when they heard
approaching footsteps, but they might
have spared the start Neither OF them
was observed.
81 always did think Mrs. Burgess was
sweet looking, Billy" said Miss Ty-
son, absently pressing 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''
Little Afraid of Work.
/, GDid won advertise for a how sir p'