The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-06-01
Continued from Saturday,

1 lunched with them. The doctor
required to the subject of my angling
intentions, and asked his daughter if
she had heard what parts of the stream
at Birmingham were best for fishing
in.
She replied, with a mixture of mod
est e~vasiveness and adorable sim
plicity, that she had sometimes seen
gentlemen angling from a meadow
bank about a quarter of a mile below
her 1ower-garden. I risked everything
in my usual venturesome way, and
asked If she would show me where the
place was, in case I called the next
morning with my ~fshing-rod. She
looked dutifully at her father. He
smiled and nodded. Inestimable par
emit!
On rising to take leave I was rather
curious to know whether he would offer
me a bed in the house, or not. He de-
tected the direction of my thoughts
in my face and manner, and apollo
gized for not having a bed to offer me;
every spare room in the house being
occupied by his chemical assistants,
and by the lumber of his laboratories.
Even while he was speaking those few
words, Alicia's face changed just as /
had seen it change at u first inter-
view. The 1owncast, gloomy express
sion overspread It again. Her fathers
eve wandered toward her when mine
did, and suddenly assumed the same
d%istrustful look which / remembered
detecting in it, under similar circum-
stances, at Duskydale. What could
this mean?
The doctor shook hands with me in
the hall, leaving the workmanlike foot
man to open the doc
l stopped to admire a fine pair of
stays antlers. The footman coughed
impatiently. 1 still fingered, hearing
the doctors footsteps ascending the
stairs. They suddenly stopped, and
then there was a low heavy clang, like
the sound of a closing door made of
iron, or of some other unusually strong
material; Their total silence, interrupted
by another impatient cough from the
workmanlike footman. After that, 1
thought my wisest proceeding would
be to go away before my mysterious
attendant was driven to practical
extremities.
Between thoughts of Alicia, and in
quisitive warnings to know more about
the doctors experiments, 1 passed
rather a restless night at my inn.
The next morning I found the lovely
mistress of my destiny, with the softest
of shawls on her shoulders, the bright
est of parasols in her hand, and the
smart little straw hal of the day be-
fore on her head, ready to show me
the way to the fishing-place.
Let me confess that l assumed the
character of a fastidious angler, and
managed to be a week in discovering
the right place to fish in-always, it is
unnecessary to say, under Alicia's
guidance. We went up the stream and
down the stream on one side. We
crossed the bridge n went up the
stream and down the stream on the
other. We got into a punt n went up
the stream with great dificulty), and
down the stream with great easel. We
landed on a little island and walked all
round it and inspected the stream at
tentively from a central point of view.
| We found the island damp and went
back to the bank. and up the stream,
and over the bridge, and down the
stream again; and then, for the first
time, the sweet girl turned appealingly
to me, and confessed that she had ex-
hausted her artless knowledge of the
lOCdlllH. II was 6AlIllJ q NCGh IIOiAA
the day when 1 mad first followed her
into the fields with my fishing rod over
my shoulder; and 1 "a never yet
caught anything but Alicia's hand, and
that not with my hook.
We sat down close together on the
bank, entirely in consequence of our
despair at not finding a good fishing
place. l looked at the brown eyes and
than fttp,,al "a xxra " AheArNa ntlU dnmT1 tho
stream. 1 followed them n they
turned away inquiringly up the stream
Was this angel of patience and kind
ness still looking for a fishing place?
And was it up the stream. after all?
| No!-she smiled and shook her head
when 1 asked the question, and the
brown eyes suddenly stole a loo at me.
could hold out no longer. In n
breathless moment 1 caught hold of
both her hands-in one stammering SEN
tence 1 asked her if she would be my
wife.
She tried family to free her hands
gave up the Observation-Disclosures an
effort to look grave-gave up that, too
sighed suddenly-checked herself sud-
~denly-said nothing. Perhaps l ought
to have taken my answer for granted;
but the least business-like man that
ever lived becomes an e%minently practi-
cal character in matters of love. I re-
peated my question. She looked away
confusedly; her eye lighted on a corner
of her fathers red-brick house, peeping
through a gap in the plantation al
ready mentioned: and her blushing
cheeks lost their color instantly. 1 felt
her hands grow cold: she drew them
resolutely out of mine, and rose with
the tears in her eyes. Had I offended
her?
mo-" she said, when I asked her the
ofestion and turned In me again. and