The Washington herald., 1908-01-12

She greeted her first and only boarder
with a shy dignity
7 think you will find it quiet enough
here, AIR. Holmes; you said in your let
ter that you wanted 10 get away from
home and the children while you finished
your book"
John Holmes put his suit case down on
the veranda and took the huge rocker
offered by Miss Penelope's colored ser
want, Aunt Dilsey-
1T looks nice and quiet" he said, tax
ing in the gorgeous coloring of the trees,
and the oId-fashioned flower garden, now
CAV with dahllas and geraniums. Il
think I will be able 70 work after day
or so of rest and wandering through
the woods. When I got your mothers
answer 10 my advertisement I instinct
lively knew that it was the right one to
accept"
Miss Penelope blushed family.
Not my moJher's-I am youT-hOstess,
I keep house for my father" She never
in the world would have thought Of her
self as his landlady. Aunt Dilsey will
render you any necessary service. Take
Mr.. Holmes suit case Aunt Dilsey, and
show him his room. Supper will be ready
in half an hour.
He went upstairs to the front bedroom,
rather pleased that he would have for
company at supper a pleasing woman
Of perhaps thirty instead OF the middle
aged farmers wife whom his magma
ton had pictured.
Miss Penelope, giving final touch TO
s@- Of
brilliant fall blossoms, talked TO her blind
father IF it's quiet he wants-he GER
tainly ought to be satisfied But he is
much younger man than I expected. I
have read hts last book-and it doesn't
seem that such jolly looking man could
have written books SO serious.
He said there were five children at HIS
house-and that their mother believed
that constant exercise Of lungs and
muscles was good for their development.
Wen feel really important Daddy. hav-
ing a real book written in our house. or
on our veranda, or in our back yard,
wherever genius happens to inspire him"
and she ran on merrily, giving the little
details which for the ten years Of his
blindness had been the pleasure of her
fathers life.
The novel progressed finely in the next
few weeks, and the boarder divided his
days into mornings for work, afternoons
for fishing and rambling through the
woods, and gay little chats with Miss
Penelope and her father after supper.
Miss Penelope forgot the shyness for
which she was noted. and talked Of the
things she had read and dreamed about
for years as If she had actually lived
them. Returning from school ten years
before, she had not found the average
youth of the community congenial her
natural timidity and Teticence had been
mistaken for hauteur. and not one OF
the country swains had possessed the
courage to ask her to go for the Gus
tomary drives or TO the yearly ice cream
festival.
She had tended her flower garden, di-
rected the management of her fathers
farm, and for amusement had lived in a
world OF books and magazines. The only
love Of her life was a worship of Ru-
dolph Rassendyll after reading THE
Prisoner Of 2enda." She unconsciously
adapted her style Of dress to the lines
that she thought would have suited the
slendeTness of Queen Flavia, and never
realized that she was dreaming her life
away.
10 Homes She talked freeiy-Of her
fancies, of his work, Of anything that
the moment prompted, and he had un-
consciously added touch Of her to the
quaint heroine of his book
Let me read you the last three chap
ters," he said one evening, when the rain
had driven them indoors from the flower
garden and the hammock under the trees.
1T always sounds conceited for a writer
to want to read his own works, but I
believe 1 have given the exact touch to
this-and 1 want to see how It strikes
you"
He brought the manuscript and Miss
Penelope lit the old-fashioned lamp. AS
he read. her eyes dilated and she listened
eagerly-she saw her own dahlia garden
Haunting In the autumn sun, the wood
land path that led from the back of the
garden To the Creek-and was il Mr..
Holmes or her own Rudolph Rassendyll,
tTansplanted to quiet and home-like at
mosphere, that was given a red rose in
the garden by the strangely familiar
woman in the book?
You have made her like me-" she
gasped incredulously, and fdealIzed me
and where she tells MIN about her life
lived in the characters from books she