The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-17

a fine pair, and Vernon caught her self thinking that a. fight between
 them would be an even match. She wondered that she could think that thing at that moment. But all hel | mind was, as it were, diclocated,
 broken up into fragments, and float ing discursively in void. She knew
 there was grass under her feet, and
 sky and trees about her; but the col ors of everything were changed. and
 Jem's voice came from far away. She could see, that he drew Lionel to 8
 little distance, she could hear their voices, in urgent talk. She did not
 catch what they said; but after a
 minute or two they both strolled
 away, up the slope. in the direction of
 the road, She did not call. for she
 knew that Jem had no intention tf
 leaving her alone. She merely, with
 gratitude, sank down among the fern
 and stared at the pool in a silence
 so amazed that it was almost nyp- notic.
 The milky veil of cloud was part
 ing towards the, west, and shafts of
 delicate sunlight, warmly colored, stole through. They tinted the wa
 glory towards the brink where the girl sat. Along it, every snowy plume tinged with fire, sailed the supern
 male swan, his wings raised. The soft, melodious evening call of the
 sedge warbler made a kind of, Ale
 Iuia to her flooding emotions of some
 divine thing too inward to be de-
 scribed as joy-as yet.
 She asked herself nothing, she
 made no attempt to collect her thoughts. She just sat there. steeped in the unutterabie nature of her own sensations, passively awaiting what should happen next. It was not her l move. She had played, in her turn.
 She had said the decisive word from
 which there was no going back. Now
 she had only to wait. and see what
 would follow. The minutes length ened themselves out. Apparently Jem and Lionel did not find their differ ences easy to settle. She sat on in the stiffness, till suddenly a thought darted into her mind. Were they was it possible that they were fight ing?
 Inc Iv, f1an xxyny a hC,rN x-1x it brought her to her feet. And sfar
 up the slope she saw lem coming slowly down towards her. his head still bare. his hands behind his back.
 The sunlight caught him and gilded
 his rough tweeds and shone upon his
 face. Such wonderful. still face, as I it might have been the countenance of some rough, unlettered knight, some Deloraine. to whom, all unex- pectedly, the Vision of the Grail had
 been vouchsafed.
 She waited, motionless, until he had come right up to where she stood. Her eyes searched his face.
 and found therein that new kindness
 which for a. moment she had seen when last she spoke to him. in the
 hall at Carronlea.
 "Sit down again. please.'' he said. She did so. instantly. and he let
 himself drop down beside her, his
 whole athletic tale of inches.
 Its all right" he said in low
 voice. T shant take any unfair ad- vantage. You said that-that in-
 credible thing-just to let him know
 that it was hopeless. as far as he was
 concerned-did you? If so-welI.
 you know you may. You may say that, or anything else, and I'll abide by it.'' He dropped to an even lower
 key: "But. if. it's true' =. the pause
 showed her that he could hardly trust his voice eff it should by
 any wild chance be true just give me your hand, and shall know =. shall believe"
 There was a swift, instant move
 ment. and both her warm hands were stretched impulsively towards him. 
 Tn moments of the strongest emo- ton, man quits words, and merely
 makes sounds. The sound that Jem
 made is untranslatable. But it told ! the girl more than page of rhetoric could have conveyed. They sprang, each to. each, by a
 mutual impulse. while unseen, the | Spirits of the Waste and Weald wove their airy chains about them. There was nothing between them
 for some long time. which could iegi- timately be described as conversation. The mere fact of being together
 seemed to preclude the necessity of
 any other explanation. Life explain ed itself, as they sat speil-bound, up- | on the enchanted margin of the Pool;
 in tender touches, thrilling with life's magic, in kisses that resolved all diff | faculties.
 1 When at last they began to talk,
 the things they chose to say seemed
 curious.
 70 Jem, thought you were going away because of me-"
 I "So was; I couldn't stand it. And
 when I heard this poor chap was coming, I thought that settled it."