Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-21
aior the Hon. GRAVITY
DI RWENT.
LIST Life Qua rdS. Windsor.

! There he was kneeling at her feet
I her ideal guardsman-the son of Il peer
/ handsome. brave soldier and AS mod
! est as he was brave. She was not vain
| girl. but she could not but feel that she
! had made an impression upon him, and
i before they had come to the end Of their
/ tourney together at the junction fo4'
Dustington she knew that she had not
| 1attered herself. She had got out of the
/ train-he was going on to London-and
/ they had few minutes together on the
platform.
j Would You think it great impertinence
! on my part if | We're to beg of YOU to
| let me know what is Your name" he
/ said II should like to--if I may-write
! to YOU, and perhaps-you are not mar
/ ried?"
| Il am not married. she replied. My
name is Pearl Craythorne, and my father
! is a bookseller at Dustineton.''
| And may / write to you?''
IF YOU think il is worth the trouble
! Worth the trouble-if / think it
! worth
| But before he could complete the SEN
| tence he had to jump into his train. 1t
/ began 10 move away a second later.
| She arrived at her home in due course
and found herself standing flushed. be-
| fore the glass in her wardrobe door. ask
| ing herself If 1t was possible that DER
dream. had come true-if she had at last
| crossed the boundary of romance. A
major in the guards. She had often pic
| tured such a man. but now that she had
| become acquainted With him she was
/ conscious Of the great difference between
/ the ideal of her fiction winters and the
reality. She now felt how closely the
| former resembled the bounder of daily
| life: he had nothing in common with the
! subdued style of the man from whom
| she had parted few hours earlier-the
| mar who had promised to write to her
And then her heart sank. He was the
son of peer and doubtless accustomed
to q very different menage from that of
Phi ip Craythorne, the respectable book
thirk if he came to Dustington and
found that she lived with her father
over the shop in the High street?
Well. he might turn about and so back
10 Windsor if he wished. She had told
him boldly that her father was ii book
seller he knew what to expect Let
hin, come or let him stay away. She
would not make any attempt to deceive
him.
And then, curiously enough. she began
to think of Robert with a tenderness that
she had never known before. She was
surprised TO find herself in such a mood
but she had never previously considered
what a difference parting from him would
make to her life. She now found herself
saving wistfully. Poor Robert and be-
fore she slept she was at the point of
wishing that this terribly distracting fig
ure of Major the Hon. GRAVITY Durwent
into her life. BY the evening of the next
day she had made up her mind that she
had seen the last of this disturbing per-
sonage, for no letter from him had come
to her 1t seemed plain that her reTsla-
ton respecting her father being a shop
kee per mad been too much for him.
VERY well, she said to herself on the
evening of the second day that passed. in
silence. Very Well. Let him go.''
But the next morning she found letter
wa ting for her bearing the Windsor post
mark. With flushed face and beating
heart she tore it open and read the fol-
lowing:
ID EAR Miss Craythorne:
You were so Very kind as to give me
permission To address YOU though YOU
knew nothing of who | was or my cir
cumstances And this leads me- to be-
lieve that perhaps the feeling which |
had for You. after only few hours ac-
quaintance, was returned by YOU. / hone
that | was not wrong. for indeed from
the first moment that | saw you / felt
curiously attracted. and although I admit