The Detroit times., 1913-11-15
CHAPTER XVIII.
NI0ht.

| :
Night.
A quicker breeze was stirring q
John Valiant went hack along tho u,od
Road. Il brushed the fraying cluuds
from the sky, leaving it q pale groys
blue. sprinkled with wan stara ~
had waited In the Garden Ct uooo-
wood till Shirley, aided by HumaIlne
xnd with HxnstuuaB anxious lKC6 nUy-
ering In the background, having ~.
formed those gentle o1lcoe which q
come 70 reassure him and to say good
night.
The road seemed no longer dark;
| II swan before him now IN s0ft
winged mistinesS with hers ana t15or0
Quely above huddled cobble-wall and
her sform SWAN h1k6re him. The tax-
ture Of each shadowy bush seazmed
that gausy drapery, sprayed With
lies-of-the-valley and the leaves syl-
labled her name In cautious whispers.
That. brief touch Of her, when 10 hAd
caught her In his arms, fingered. a.
the memory Of the harp music on NJ
inner ear. pricking his senses like
fine. musk. thing of SOFT new pulses
flashing over him like spurts Of ~
por.
Az he threw on his coat in the bed
room he had chosen for his own. he
felt the hard corner OF the Luctlo IL
the pocket, and drawing Il ont, laid
It on the table by the bedside. He
seemed to feel again the tin&je Of his
cheek whore curling strand OF her
coppery hair had sprung against te
when her head had bent beside hts
own to read the marked lines. BY
now perhaps that riotous crown Was
all unbound and falling redly about
her shoulders. those shoulders no
longer peeping from q weave Of uhoe.
but draped In virginia. white. Per
haps she knelt now by her siIk-cov-
cred bed, warming the coverlid with
her breast, her down-bent face above
her locked palms. What did she pray
for, he wondered. As q child, his
own prayers had been comprehensive
ones. Even the savages who lived
at Wishing House and their innumer-
able offspring had been regularly "a.
cluded in those petitions.
When he had undressed he sat an
hour in the candle-blaze, dressing
gown thrown over his shoulders.
striving vainly to recreate that even
ing call. to remember her every word
and look and movement For breath
her face would flush suddenly before
him, like live thing; then It wouiG
mysteriously fade and elude him.
though he eleHehed his hands on the
arms of his chair In the fierce mental
effort to recall It. Onlv ~ '"'--~r
blue OF her eyes, the tawny sweop
OF her hair--these and the .ou.a =.
her, the consciousness Of her warm
and vivid fragrance. remained to wrap
all his senses In mist woven Of gold
and fire.
Shirley, meanwhile, had sat some
time beside her mothers bed. leaning
from white chints-covered chair,
her anxiety only partially allayed by
reassurances, now and then STOPPING
to lay her young cheek against the
delicate arm in its lacy sleeve or to
pass her hand lovingly mp and down
its outline, noting with a recurrent
passion of tenderness the transpar-
ency of the skin with It's violet vein-
| ing and the shadows beneath the clos
ed eyes. Emmaline. moving on soft
worsted. shod feet about the dim room.
at length had whispered:
You 20 tub bald. honey. ! stay
with Mis- Judith till she 20 tuh
sleep"
yes, go. Shirley said her mother
Haven't 1 any privileges at aIT
Cant + even faint when feel like y,
without calling out the nre-brlgAdey
You'll pamper me to death and hear
/. en- knows | don't need IT."
"You won't let me telephone for
Doctor Southall?"
Certainly mott"
and you are sure It was nothing
but the rosesy'
why. what else should Il bey' -
her mother almost peevtsaly. ~
must really have the arboSu t1tanea ,
out On heavy nights its poe>t1vog
oyef. powering Go along uow. -
vel talk about Il Tomorrow. ! 90 ,
ring II want snything." - 9