The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1908-06-18
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Homecoming,
BY CecHY Allen.

| J Copyrighted. 1903, by Homer Sprague
She was extremely fair to look upon.
TO Nat Gregory the realization of
this fact was nothing new. But some
how just at this particular moment II
was borne In upon him afresh and at
novel angle.
| Her hair was blue black, so were
her lashes, and her eyes were won.
derful blue, which, somehow, some.
times, turned to an equally wonderful
violet.
The last time that Nat had looked
into them his own had been full of
stinglng unshed tears. How could he
stand six months In Panama with the
light of those blue or were they violet
eyes denied him?
But her notes had been SO brief and
unsatisfactory that even In hot, lazy
Panama he had caught himself read.
Ing between the lines and finding therc
selfish soul, the small narrow soul of
the girl given to personal conquests,
the soul stepped in admiration and fed
on compliments.
She was smiling at him now across
the cars broad aisle and above great
granny" muff Of gray squirrel. That
huge mass Of fur made her face look
all the more piquant and dainty.
Occasionally the man on the right
Intercepted the friendly glances which
Peggy Barton shot at the newly re
turned Gregory, and he glowered. Nat
Gregory knew just how the chap felt.
He had Intercepted the same sort Of
glances, and they had made him
squirm too.
She simulated tiny cough and In.
stantly raised the muff again. The
cough was a good excuse for fetch
Ing pose, but somehow the absurd little
deception annoyed Nat Gregory, 1t is
so sometimes with men who have had
their minds and souls opened and
broadened by travel and contact with
men OF affairs.
So he let his glance wander to the
girl next to Peggy. She smiled ut the
returned traveller, too, but II was a
different sort Of smile, wholesome,
friendly smile. without any vague
sense OF ownership behind It, Peggy
Barton always assumed that air with
men-her sister Janet, never.
For you see. Janet was the ugly
Of the Barton family, famous
for Its pretty daughters and the good
they made Janet was the
and she might not have been
homely II Peggy had not
been so brilliantly, scintillatingiy beau
Iiful by contrast.
There were those, principally women
md young men without prospects, who
said that Peggy Barton always drag
red her younger and less attractive sis
Ter around with her as foil.
Something OF this was passing
through Nat Gregory's head as he sat
the little comedy The other
,hap would be furious II Nat crossed
he aisle and talked with Peggy, and
Peggy would be furious II he did not.
30 he would strike happy medium.
lie would join the party and talk 10
Ianet.
How well he could remember their
many trips together Peggy, Janet and
limsclf--to the links, where be and
'eggy played golf aud Janet sat on the
'eranda or disappeared ia the woods
where wild flowers were thick, to the
matinee, where between the acts be
nd Peggy discussed the love interest
4 the play as II II were personal
aalier, while Janet read the advertise
1ents in the programme; to the rink,
where be and Peggy skated together
nd Jmet found some gln friend as a
kating partner or sat against the wall
laking humorous mental comment on
be clrcllng tide before her
What Jolly little beggar Janet had
cen IN those days. II she had been
0red she had never shown II. and
Ie was standing before the trio now.
The man, Fred Marsden. had been
niy introduced. Peggy had turned
he fun battery Of her wonderful eyes
-ithoui the aid Of the granny nun
pom Gregory's tanned and clean cut
ice. and Janet had murnured some
ling about "old times"
Il haven't skaied why. Il II nearly