The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-05

! sion of the two of them. There was a. smile on the woman's face, which seemed to have been put there care fully, and told to keep in place. She had thin lips, very light eyes, and
 masses of red hair, beautifully ar ! ranged. In that light, her skin look ed like cream: but the curve of her ] look pleasant.
 The man was big, strenuous, and l ugly. At the moment, his ugliness l was pronounced. His prominent jaw
 was set, his face curiously white, his eyes had a peculiar glitter; but he too wore a carefully posed smile up- on a mouth which looked as though l it might express more fitly-well, other things than smiles. Words were on his lips as he open- ed the door.
 "Hallo, old chap, we'd given you up. I stayed with your wife, as she seemed a bit ner' the voice dropped into stiffness with a kind of jolt. He peered out, with dilated eyes, ! into the blackness of the night There's nobody there,' he said huskily.
 The woman in the glittering gown
 made a step forward. Don't fright en me, Jem," she cried in a queer,
 strained voice. That knocking could ho fo EJa ,Sk 6o side"
 Gan he gave gone round to the stable?" murmured Jem. He step ped over the threshold, within reach of the fainting guest, and she stretch ed out a trembling hand and laid it on his arm.
 He gave the kind of smotheFed cry
 man gives who is thoroughly scared.
 Great Heaven. what's that?'' 'Its only me- said a faltering voice. "I am wet through, I saw the light ask your help,"-as he re- l coiled, she held his sleeve more firm ! ly, and supporting herself against 1 him, got upon her feet. The agony I in them stung her back to full con- sciousness. 'It is of no use to tell
 me to go,' she walled, flor simply can't"
 With swish of silken robes, the woman had come nearer. 'It's a beg gar-a tramp!" she said; and mingled i with the disgust in her voice, was a note of relief, plainly to be discern ed. The gale blew her hair about, and fluttered the faces and ribbons l in her gown.
 My good woman" she said, "you
 must go round to the yard-'' I'm not a tramp" said a weak | voice, with an arrested note in it.. l Cant you see I'm not? But T am ! wet to the skin and-and starving. Sorry to be troublesome. but I think I-must have heIp. or shall die.' The man glanced down at the rivu- | lets which streamed from her skirt and dripped upon the doorstep. Let us shut this door, he said roughly, Cor the wind will blow out the lamp. 1 Laura-get a newspaper for her to at her.
 l She was drawn inside and the door 1 was shut. The blessed sensation of being no longer wind-buffeted was
 what came first. The woman went 1 into the sitting room, whence the glow of f1relight stole into the hall, | brought back paper and laid it on the floor. The girl who stood upon
 it, drenched as though dipped into 8
 river, was g sorry sight. She caught sight of herself, suddenly. in glass l which was fixed against the wall of the hall: and she burst into pitiful,
 weak laughter.
 "Oh. ohi''. she cried, "do I really look like that?''
 Her laughter threatened to become
 hysterical. "Oh, do forgive me- she
 gasped, land let me sit down! I have
 had no food for twelve hours, and I feel so ill.,
 Brandy" was Jem's masculine suggestion But Laura was wiser. 'I shall only give her milk at first" she said. "Get a wooden chair for her to sit upon, and I will take candle, and forage in the kitchen.
 Ask her who she is." She vanished, through an oaken door under the stairs, and Jem drew forward a carved chair upon which the drenched guest seated herself, shivering. He stood over her, his hands in his pockets, a most un- amiable expression upon his lowering face. May I ask who you are," he said at last.
 By way of a preliminary hospital ity, Laura had thrust a little wispy pocket -handkerohief into her hands She wiped the rain from her eyes and looked up at him. Yes-she was not bad-looking, though so draggIed. Young too. By no means a desirable person upon whom to bestow indis- criminate charity.
 Are you the master of this house." she asked.
 The question evidently took him l somewhat aback.
 ssNTo he said ssrhir is Rurrox,, E,,,,3