The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-06-28
(Continued.)

services had been shortest, though few
In the long parade looked as II the!
had been attending anything yer.
short, and many heads Of families wer,
crisp in their replies TO the theological
Inquiries of their offspring. The mel
Impaired largely a gloom to the itin
Grant concourse. most of them wearipi
hot, long black coats and having wilt
ed their collars, the ladies relieving
this gloom somewhat by the lighter
tints of their garments, the spick and
span little girls relieving it greatly by
their white dresses and their faces. the
latter bright with the hope of Sunday
Ice cream, while the boys, experiencing
some solace in that they were finally
out where a person could at least
scratch himself if he had to, yet OPP
pressed by the decOrous necessities of
the day. marched along furtively
planning behind imperturbably secre-
tive countenances various means for
the later dispersal Of an odious monot-
ony.
Usually the conversation of this long
string of the homeward bound was
not too frivolous or worldly. Nay; 1t
properly inclined to discussion of the
sermon.
1t was a serious and seemly Sunday
parade. the propriety Of whose beha-
vior was today almost disintegrated
when the lady of the bridge walked up
the street in the shadow OF a lacy law
ender parasol carried by Joseph Lou
den. The congregation of the church
across the square-that to which Joe's
stepaunt had been late-was just de-
bouching, almost in mass. upon Main
, street when these two went by. 1t is
not quite the truth to say that all ex-
cept the children came to a dead halt,
but it is not very far from it. The air
was thick with subdued EXPLANATIONS
and whisperings.
Here is no mystery. Joe was prob
ably the only person of respectable
derivation in Canaan who had not
known for weeks that Ariel Tabor was
on her way home. And the news that
she had arrived the night before lad
been widely disseminated on the way
to church, entering church. in church
(even sob and coming out of church.
An account of her house in the Ave
nue. Henri Martin and of her portrait
In the Salon-a mysterious business to
many and not lacking in grandeur for
that-had occupied two columns in
the Tocsin on a day some months be-
fore when Joe had found himself in
imically headlined on the first page
and had dropped the paper without
reading further. AriePs name had
been in the mouth of Canaan for a
long time unfortunately for Joe. how
ever, not in the mouth of that Canaan
which held converse with him.
Joe had not known her. The wom |
en- recognized her infallibly at first
glance even those who had quite for |
gotten her And the women told their (
men; hence the un-Sunday-like de-
meanor of the procession, for few /
towns hold it more unseemly to stand |
and stare at passersby, especially on
the Sabbath. But Ariel Tabor return
ed-and walking with-with Joe Lou
den!
AIiCi a llblC W Ch ShC pei /
ceived the extent of their conspicuous |
ness, but it was not the blush that Joe
had redeemed the tanned
skin of old, for her brownness had
zone long ago. though it had not left
her merely pink and white. This was
4 delicate rosiness rising from her
cheeks to her temples, as the earliest
dawn rises. If there had been many 1
words left in Joe he would have called
t divine blush. 1t fascinated him, Ii
md if anything could have deepened e
he glamour about her it would have L
leen this blush He did not under t
stand 1t, but when he saw it he STUN |
lied lie
Those who gaped and stared were | {
or him only blurs in the background. Il
Truly, he saw men MS trees walk
n.y." and when it became necessary to Il
tep out to the curb in passing some
lump of people II was to him as IL s
lriel and he. enchantedly alone were 0
working their way through underbrush Il
n the woods. Il
He kept trying to realize that this v
ldy of wonder was Ariel Tabor. but
e could not He could not connect the Y
habby Ariel, whom he had treated as
ne boy treats another, with this young &
-oman Of the world He had always
cen embarrassed himself and ashamed II
[ her when anything she did made ID
i'm remember that. after all, she was
rl as on the day he ran away when u
he kissed a lock of his hair escaping
ON the bandage. With that recollec- =
on even his ears grew red. 1t did W
IT seem probable that it would ever :"
lppen again. The next instant he
lard himself calling her Miss Ia
IT." a,
At this she seemed amused. You =,
Ight to have called me that years ~
TO-" she said. "for all you knew me-" -,
II did know her-you, | mean," he
severed. II used to know nearly n,
erything you were going to say be- I'm