The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-18

rdd1ant,' l said, ana was aBalH CONSCIOUS of the curious. intimate gaze he turned on me. He took off his hat and touched the tips of his brown fingers to one side of his curly hair, cut en brosse It was a ges- ture I came to know and one l cannot see today without a little start
 |" The fire will come into your jeweled sea when the sun sinks lower, he said in an oddly charming voice, with little. sud- den. unexpected turns in it. As he spoke a long red beam flashed across the water. That means the end of the day l sa
 the hushed to~ee .ho -. imposed on us He made no answer and we
 stood quite still for l iong, long time, watching the prodigious sight that sun set over the sea always is. It was like being present at a great and memorable event so slowly and imposingy did the waves swallow up the flaming disk. When the last fiery gleam was quenched a quick coolness fell about us, and, partly from the cold and partly from an undefined feeling of grave doubt l drew a long breath, almost a sigh, and shivered. My companion turned toward me and said seriously, as if in answer to my last re- mark: If it means the end of that day, it means also the beginning of a new one, and that may always be the beginning of a new life.'
 T gave another little shiver as I thought of the pleasant, empty years that had filled my life up to that time and of their probable continuance in just such emptiness. Sister Ruth called sleeply to me: Margaret, aren't you cold? Wouldn't you better put your wrap on?' Little black Pollie came toward me, hold ing it out. and as she helped me on with it she said complainingly: Miss Mahgret, doan' yo think its gettn' powerful late@ Amt it most time dat boat was heah? To watch done stop and I doan know what time 'tlsl Ask dat foreign gemman, why doan' you?' I did so, and was in- formed that it was nearly o'clock. Pollie went on: Say, Miss Mahgret, why kyan't We eat that lunch we brought now? I'm powerful hongry, and there ain't no tellin' when de boat'll be here
 Upon my consenting her nimble, black fingers soon had the lunch ar ranged on a fallen stone pillar, and Sister Ruth and were sitting, with a sandwich and a glass of wine, exchang ing comments on the lateness of the boat. The young man of the sunset had withdrawn as far as possible to the other end of the wharf, and stood with his back to us. Sister Ruth was seized with hospitable compunctions and asked me if I didn't think it would be pleasant to invite the polite young gentleman who had given her the chair to share our meal. I stood up and called him by the only name I ever know Monsieur I said, and then waiting till he had come, with a grace full eagerness that l found charming, I asked him to lunch with us. He took off his hat, with bow of thanks, and, touching his hair with that quaint ges- ture, he seated himself beside the i'm provised table. "A great good fortune to me-your kindness he said. T have not touched food since I left Paris in such haste I found no time for lunch. I was to be sure to meet the boat so : as to get some plans for fellow arch itect. One must indeed put himself out prodigiously to meet a boat so pune tilious.' He laughed a little at his mild pleasantly, so contagiously that I felt a childlike bubble of mirth rise In my own throat, and surprised myself by laughing outright In sheer light-heart- edness. Sister Ruth asked what the l joke was, and on hearing of our guest s cause for appetite she began pressing 1 food on him with true English hor- TOT of fasting.
 "He ate heartily as we chatted of the | journey and affairs in Paris, but finally looked at me whimsically as she con tinued urging him after we had all finished and Pollie was making her own satisfied meal not far from us Please tell the holy sister that I am most grateful for her kindness, but even gratitude cannot make me care for more.' Perhaps you smoker I sug- gested, and with an eager, oh, if you really allow me- he pulled out his pipe There was an oddly domestic effect about our group, the white cloth gliin- mering In the twilight and the smoke from monsieur's pipe going straight up in the still evening air.
 "A big star suddenly flash ed out high above us, and, looking up at it. I re- peated half humorously the old super stition of my childhood:
 Starlight, star bright
 Very first star I've seen tonight Wish I may, wish I might
 Have the wish I wish tonight
 Monsieur looked curiousy at me and asked if that was an American incanta- tion. You look like a priestess chanting your evening devotions.'
 q translated the nonsense laughngly into French, and was surprised by the seriousness with which our companion re- ceived it. Why, that is for mel he cried in his resonant voice. That is for me, this night of my lifer And he said 1t over after me devoutly, with his soft black eyes fixed on mine so that I felt at once restless and strangely at ease.
 Sister Ruth was nodding again in her chair and we lowered our voices He said the rhyme reminded him of an old one in French that used to be said in Cham pagne when he was a little boy, and I repeated 1t over after him that and many other scraps of peasant verse which came into his head, amusing myself by trying to catch the slight accent of the patois in which he recited them. Sister Ruth now slept profoundly and Pollie had curled up by her side. I covered them over with his travelling rug and rose to walk up and down to warm myself. Monsieur paced beside me and talked in hushed tones of the suave and smiling country of Champagne. It seemed very much like the green valleys of Connecticut which I could remember from my childhood, and we compared early experiences.
 "A wave of homesickness for my own country and regret for the years spent in English schools came over me, I sought for memories of hooks In the woods to match those of this lover of green fields I amazed myself not only by the frankness with which I spoke of that early, precious time when my mother was still alive, and we were living at home in America, but by the depth of my love for 1t. In the dusky. shimmering twilight felt strangely moved by unde- fined emotion. It was as though a vivid flood of warm feeling had suddenly filled my heart, or as though 1t had always been there and a hard crust of indif- ference about it had but now broken I found myself saying to this stranger. to this foreigner of an alien tongue things of which I had been scarcely conscious myself.
 srrhe stars came out in quiet hundreds