Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-06-17
THE GIRL IN THE PUNT.
By ARTHUR HI. ADAMS

1t was in the long vacation. Under
the shadow of the elms along the
bank lay the man. He was pretend
ing to read, but the magazine lay ig-
ANONYMOUSLY on the grass.
The man let his hat slip down over
his face and dropped into dreaming
thought. Below the bank on which ne
rested. the river dimly moved through
an avenue OF shade, and sometimes
boat full or summer girls slid quietly
past. pii
The mans thoughts were not pleas
ant. 1t had come upon him this after
noon that he was growing old. He had
come TO the stopping place where he
would have to pause to reflect, to READ
Just the value Of life. Waiting for
him, at some corner out Of sigl Uut
not far on was Age. And how was ne
going 10 meet tnat grimly waiting,
silent one? Was he unready, unpre-
pared for that quiet comfort? Had
he lived his youth out yet? Was Age
the only companion that life now
held for him, or would he have a
friend to go with him, and with her
gentle presence soften that grim ac-
quaintance's ways? What had he
done with his forty years of life If he
now was lonely, as solitary, as when
he entered life?
There were his men friends, all
glad to see him, to have his company,
to discuss and argue with him, to In
troduce him to their wives, to let him
be god father to their children, but
they are not the friends he had once
known.
And then there was she. He had al
ways been q shy man. happy with his
books, a little afraid Of people. And
women never seemed to care much for
him. His few women friends treated
him not quite as they treated other
men. They liked him, but he felt
beneath their friendship a lack-of
what he scarcely knew. except that 1t
was something for which his whole
being vaguely craved.
Then she had come into his life.
And he had loved her with a vivid
ness, an emotion, that had startled
him out of himself. And she had
been kind, and when he had asked
her to join her life to his, she mad
assented with a strange show OF re-
luctance that he put down to shy
ness. But from that moment he had
grown to love her with a love that
made all that he read Of love seem
drab tinted and dull. Then she had
written to him that letter, telling
him with a cruel frankness that she
was mistaken. She did not care that
way. Since she had left him she had
met someone who had awakened her
to the fact that she had been on the
verge of making a terrible mistake.
Would he release her and forgive her
for the pain she knew she was in
fiicting? And he had answered In
the only way a man could answer and
gone back to his books with an infinite
compassion for the girl whose love
he had so nearly trapped.
But he missed her presence, her
talk, her many unconscious disclos-
ures Of herself; above all, he missed
her daily letters to him. He had
grown into the habit Of writing to
her all his thoughts. Mentally he
had always been conscious Of a terrible
loneliness. And in his daily letters
to her that feeling had been, as he
thought, forever assuaged.
And now-for the rest Of his life
he was shut up again with his own
soul-the worst loneliness in his life.
A little gust Of wind lifted his hat
from his eyes. and he suddenly sat
up. Along the narrow stream was
leisurely coming a punt, and standing
in it a tall girl in pink. She had
thrown her hat in the bottom Of the
punt, and her head was crowned with
a glory of richly tinted brown. Her
firm, brown arms were bare to the
elbow, and as she slowly propelled
the light craft, her figure showed
graceful lines of bosom and limb
AS she came nearer he saw dark eyes
looking out. Of a face that woulc
have been beautiful if 1t had not beer
for a nose that tilted irresponsiblI
and a mouth that smiled too often t.
retain its classic shape. In the boa
were some baskets that pointed t.
the probability Of afternoon tea. Blu
she was alone.
'She is going to meet him furthel
up," the man said to himself with
vague envy.
Before she went from sight, lost IL
the green GOODNESS Of that avenue o
shade, she looked back once. In tina
glance the man thought he saw a lit
tie lowering smile. But he put tn
thought from him with a laugh
women did not waste their smiles OF
him.
He determined to wait and see tn
punt return. But it might not return
down that channel! Anyhow, h
would wait.
thCiC was oNSii - o.
ing for him somewhere in the world
Then, with a short laugh at him
self, he took out some sheets OF pa
per and with his fountain pen bega
a letter. 1t was headed, ITO the Gil
in the Punt"
In the delightful afternoon whic
the girl spent in the punt no ma
had any part. She loved the rive
with a devotion few suspected
Those quiet, curving waterways, over
reached with cool green, were to he
something almost God-given. And
soon she was going away to leav
them all, perhaps foreveri
Then in the evening she was slow
ly drifting down stream she pause
as she came to the bank where sh
remembered to have noticed the maj
For she saw no man, but a collectio
of articles, a walking stick, pip
a tobacco pouch, magazine and som
zoo..orod sbaats of looSe writing Da