Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1910-11-10

lowed. Mt he end Of whlrh ilna be
signed "An Admirer" 60 his note. slip.
ped Il into the box. snatehcd up his
hat and sallled forth. The clocks were
striking M he marched resolutely
up the steps Of the Ayres residence.
looked the servant who came to the
door sternly In the eye. said. with n
steadiness he had not expected For
Miss Natalie" and abruptly departed
Three hours later he was In bed. with
the covers In astouishln- confusion.
staring at the ceiling and applying to
the person OF one Matthew bacon an
infinite variety of tho most unhatter-
ing epithets imaginable.
lie might have known I'll The fol-
lowing morning In lecture. when In
stinct rather than actual perception
told him that Misc Ayres had taken
her plnce across the aisle. he sum
moned all his resolution and looked at
her. full and fair She was bending
over her notebook with an appearance
of complete unconcern. and there was
not so much as the petal of n violet
visible about her from top TO toel
That day was celebrated in the an.
nails of his clnss as that OF "Bacon's
Great Crouch" lie was, as his near
est friends conceded. positively unfit
for publication. For half the after
noon, seated on one OF the campus
benches, he replied with acerblty that
too frequently merged into profanity
10 all remarks addressed to him. He
became in short order an object of
dorision. Groups gathered about him
and from a safe distance bombarded
him with sarcasm, as small boys throw
peanuts at n Gagged lon-to make him
roar. The climax was reached when
the most irreverent OF his tormentors
exclaimed who is she, Mattr and
all the others echoed the inquiry with
extreme relish. Then Matthew gath
cred his books and himself together,
and took his way gloomily to the Ii
brary to the supplementary reading
which the professor of English VIII
had prescribed. 1t was precisely seven
minutes later that he opened his eyes
to their fullest capacity, drew a deep
breath and then said "Gadw
Intuition told Matthew the story ir
a word-she had kept at least one Of
his flowers! Her supplementary read
ing was naturally the same as his.
She had been in the library that day
reading that book and to keep her
place had left the violet between the
leaves. The spirit of Matthew Bacon
scared instantaneously into the sew
enth heaven OF delight But she had
not worn the violets as he had asked.
She had rebuked him for the imperti-
nence of his anonymous letter. He
was n cad. And the spirit Of Matthew
Bacon plunged promptly into the Meth
ermost abyss of despair
For fifteen minutes. which seemed
like as many years, he sat. with his
temples in his hands. gazing with un-
seeing eyes at the lines before him and
telling himself that there was nothing
left to make life worth the living
Through his preoccupation he heard
the voice Of one of the library pages
speaking to n reader opposite to him
at the table.
The librarian says he's sorry, miss,
but Purradize Lost is out. Here's the
other book you wanted"
In lightning fash Of thought Mat
thew knew what voice It was that he
would hear in reply.
"Oh, dear!' said Natalie Ayres.
"Well. never mind. This will do"
A phrase from something he had
read was pounding in Matthews ears,
in fragments at first finally in one
connected whole, There is a tide-in-
in the affairs-in the affairs Of men
wh!ch-takcn-taken at the Good
leads on--!eads Cn-leads on TO for
tune
Hastily he tore leaf from his note
book and scribbled n message which
would have been a credit to a boy Of
ten:
WIN you forgive my rudeness in send
ing You that anauermous letter? ! did IL
without thinking. and I'm terribly repent
ent. Eut I'm really all right indeed ! am.
and my mother knows yours. ! was un
der kind OF spell.
MATTHEW BACON.
Slipping this epistle between the
leaves where lay the white violet. he
returned the book to the loan desk
and then went back to his seat and
spent an apparent eternity upon rack
of mental torture, At the last moment
the voice of the page. informing Miss
Ayres that she could now have 'Pur
radise Lost" threw him into n panic
When he looked up it was to meet
her eyes. For IL moment they stared
at each other. Matthew turning from
pink to crimson and from crimson to
white and the girl with an enignat-
ical smile on her lips.
"If your mother knows mine" she
said presently. with an air Of severity,
don't you think you might go to the
trouble OF getting proper introduc-
tionT Then she laughed outright
I'm afraid your letter is what might
be called a kind OF spell" she added.
After all. since the course of true
love is destined never TO run smooth,
1t is better that the bad bumps should
come at the beginning rather than ut
the end.
When. at the commencement of the
class OF 1901, Miss Natalie Ayres wore
a superb bunch OF white violetS people
said that she must be Il particular
friend of~the BacOnS And so by that