The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-04-23


 10 near all they say to each other Blu
 IT he says word about seeing you l daddy alone for a moment if he be SIhS 10 look i'll at ease to get rec
 dIto thef: pale and red again. or stam
 mers and clears his throat do you jus
 get up quietly and go- out of the room
 without a word in the most natura l way m the world. just as if you wer, | suppose I needn't tell you this: yo,
 Know it just as well as I do though | nave known it by experience and vol can not You know how I know il 1 udfllng though I never told you this l part of it. Women are Cowards We 1 know it though we don't always sa,
 so. and we even disguise it from others i now ani then. But in such a time as | nave mentioned we are all Cowards | We couldn't stay if we would We want to get away and hide our heads ! Just as we do when it thunders But | what an awful lot of rot I am talking | when Mir Hardy and your father meet | they will. I am sure. have plenty to talk about without either you or me being the subject of it. They are both Sportsnlen and fond of horses-and a
 Iot or thlngs- It is only if they don't meet that I am afraid of. I am writ ing by the way to MT. Hardy this post lto know where he is at present and
 where he has been. I shall of course
 write you when I hear; or if there be anything important I shall wire We are off to London and it is possible
 mat whilst we are there we may have
 unexpected meetings with all sorts of
 dne1io drlends and calls from them. I hope,
 dar!1ng. that by the time we reach AmbIeside we shall find you blooming, full of happiness and health and fresh ness. the very embodiment of your name"
 The letter both disauieted Joy and Soothed her. There were suggestions of rear. but there was also a consistent strain Of hope. Judy would never have said such things if she did not believe them. Moreover she herself knew what Judy did not: her aunt hadn't peeped from behind window blinds at tall figure behind lilac bushes or sitting in the darkness with only a fiery cigar tip to mark his presence. Poor Judy, The girls sympathetic heart, made more sympathetic by her own burning love. ached when she thought of the oidSr woman's lonely. barren life. She too had loved-and been loved: had hoped and feared, and waited The very knowledge of how a woman would reel when the man was asking form ally for parental sanction disclosed something of which the girl had never thought. She had always known Judy in such a motherly and elderly aspect that she had never realized the possi- bility of her having ever been in love; any more than she had given consid- eration to the love-making of her own mother. Now she was surprised to find that she too had been young had loved. and had pleasures and heart pains of her own. This set her think ing The process of thought was sil- ent but its conclusion found outward expression: the girl understood now The secret of her life-the true secret was unveiled at last:
 Poor Aunt Judy Oh. poor Aunt Judy"
 Athlyne's letter reached him a day later, having been sent on from Lon don- It was a fairly bulky one, with a nf ion rxrvitl ten hastily in a large bold hand. My Dear Friend:
 ''I have been. and am much concern ed about you. gather from his let ters that Colonel Ogilvie has been much disappointed at not having heard from you. And I want, if you will al l ow me to take the liberty, to speak to | you seriously about it. You will give me this privilege I know-if only for | the fact that I am an old maid: for | he same Powers that made me an old | maid have made me an old woman, and | such is entitled, take it to forebear- l ance, if not to respect. You should you really should be more considerate | towards Colonel Ogilvie. He is an old | man-much older than you perhaps l hink, for he bears himself as proudly | as in his younger days. But the claim | m you is not merely for his years; that | ,laim must appeal to all. From you | here is one more imperative still, one | which is personal and paramount: he | s unQer so very Qeep an OD1SatlOn 10 Tou. A matter which from another | would pass unconsidered as an act of l houghtfulnesS must now, when it is Iue to you, seem to him like a studied affront. I put it this way because I ,now you are a man of noble nature, | nd that generosity is to such even a tronger urge than duty-if such a hing be possible In certain matters e is sensitive beyond belief. Even O a degree marked in a place where | still hold that their lives he | ind every word and deed, every | bought or neglect towards another.
 have some hesitation in mentioning | his lest you should think I am sum- morning Fear to the side of Duty. But ou are above such a miSunderStand- 1g. I am sure. Oh my dear friend do l hink of some of the rest of us. You ave saved the life of our darling Joy he one creature in whom all our loves re centred. Naturally we all want to ee you again-to make much of you 0 show you in our own poor way how eeply we hold you in our hearts. But Colonel Ogilvie thinks himself in ultedLthat is how he regards any egIect however trivial-he acts on hat belief, and there is no possible olding him back He looks on it as
 sacred duty to avenge affront. You nust not blame him for it. In your eaceful English life you have I think 70 parallel to the ungovernable waves f passion that rage in the hearts of | onour is touched. Ahi we poor wo- len know it who have to suffer in si- ,nce and wait and wait, and wait; ! nd when the worst is made known 3 us, to seal up the founts of our grief < nd pretend that we too agree with he avenging of wrong. For it is our : fe to be silent in mems quarrels. We re not given a part-any part. We re not supposed to even look on. It < another world from ours and we ] ave to accept it so. Please God may l ou never know what it is to be in or n the fringe of a Feud. Well I know $ dread, it's horrori My own life that ears ago was as bright and promising 5 any young life can be; when the owe that has dawned on my girlhood ,se and beat with monday heat on " young -womanhood made it seem as
 heaven had come down to earth And 1en the one moment of m1Sunder- quick accusation-the uicker retort-and my poor heart ly- g crushed between the bodies of two len whom I loved each in his proper
 ,ir1Iy of Y