Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-25
THE VALIANTS OF VIRGINIA
BY HALLE ERMlNlE RlVEo

sidewise with a low sweet pipe that
mingled with the trickling laugh of
the falling water.
With Ranston, putting and blowing
like black porpoise over his creak-
ing go-cart, they planted the ram
blers-crimson and pink and white
Valiant much of the time on his
knees. his hands plunging deep into
the black spongy earth, and Shirley
with broad hat flung on the grass,
her fingers separating the clinging
thread-like roots and her small
arched foot tampering down the soil
about them. Her hair-the color of
wet raw wood In the sunlight-was
very near the brown head and some
times their fingers touched over the
work. Once. as they stood up, flushed
with the exercise, great black and
orange butterfly, dazed with the sum
glow, alighted on Valiant's rolled-up
sleeve. He held his arm perfectly
still and blew gently on the way
ering pinions I'll it swan away.
When redbrd flirted by to his de-
! light she whlstled it's call so per-
fectly that it wheeled in midnight
and tilted inquiringly back toward
them.
to the pergola, he said, There's only
one thing lacking at Damory Court
= a n-dial."
Then you haven't found it," she
cried delightedly. Come and let me
show you"
! She led the way through the maze
of beds at one side till they reached
a hedge laced thickly with Virginia
oreeper. He parted this leafy screen,
bending back the springing fronds
that thrust against the flimsy mus
| lin of her gown and threatened to
spear the pink-rosed hat that cast
an adorable warm tint over her
creamy face, thinking that never had
the old place seen such a picture as
she made framed in the deep green.
Some such thought was in the ma
! jor's mind, too, as he came slowly up
the terrace below. He paused, to
take off his hat and wipe his brow.
with the place all fixed up this
way" he sighed to himself. Il could
believe 1t was only last week that
Beauty Valiant and Southall and
were boys, loafing around this gyar-
den. And to think that now it's Va
liants son and Judiths daughterl
| Why 1t seems Hike yesterday that
Shirley there was only knee-high to a
|
her hair was that color because she
ran through hell bareheaded. I'm
about thousand years old, 1
| reckon"
Meanwhile the two figures above
had pushed through the taDgle into a
circular sunny space where stood a
short round pillar of red onyx 1t
was sun-dial, its vine-ciad disk cut
of gray polished stone in which It's
metal tongue was socketed. Round
the outer edge Of the disk ran an in
scription In aSchaic lettering. Va
| liant pulled away the clustering ivy
leaves and read: I~count no hours
but the happy ones.
IF that had only been true!" he
said.
1T is true. See how the vines hid
the sun from 1t. II ceased to mark
the time after the Court was de-
serted"
| He snapped the clinging tendrils
and swept the cluster from its stone
| face. TT shall begin to count again
| from this moment. Will 1t mark only
happy hours for me, wonder? I'll
bribe it with flowers"
White for happiness" he said.
"I'll put moonfiowers at its base
and where you are standing Madonna
lilies. The outer part of the circle
shall have bridal wreath and whits
irises, and they shall shade out into
pastel colors-mauves and grays and
heliotropes. oh, I shall love thlh.
| spot!-perhaps sometime the best Of
ALL
Which do you love the most nowfss
| He leaned slightly toward her. ofi&
hand on the dials time-notched rim.
Don't you know he said In lowdss
voice. Gould any other spot mean
to me what that acre under the hem
| locks means?"
! Her face was. turned from his, her,
fingers pulling at the drifting vine.
and splinter of sunlight tangled in
her hair like lace of firefiies.
81 could never forget it," he con-
tinued "The thing that spoiled my
fathers life happened there, yet there
We two first talked, and there you
"Don'tr' she said, facing him.
"Don't!'
"Ah, let me speak, / want to tell
you that ! shall carry the memory OF
| that afternoon, and of your brave
| kindness, always. always, If ! were
| never to see you again in this life, |
should always treasure It. If / died
of thirst in some Sahara, it would be
the last thing I should remember
your face would be the last thing |
should see! II L"
He paused, his veins eating hard
under the savage self-repression. Lis
hand trembling against the stone, his
voice traitor. yielding to something
that rose in his throat to choke the
stumbling words.
In the silence there was the sound
of a slow football on the gravel walk,
and at the same moment he saw
frs. ,I,fn Il F.lr
The soft gentian blue of her eyes
darlSened. The Tips that an instant
before had been tremulous parted in
a low, delicious laugh. She swept
him a deep curtsey.