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

/ sidewise, with low sweet pipe thar
mingled with the trucking laugh of
the falling water.
With Ranston. putting and blowing
like a 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 Sbirle,
with broad hat flung on the grass
her fingers separating the clingine
thread-lil5e 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, a great black and
orange butterfly, dazed with the sun
glow, alighted on Valiant's rolled-un
sleeve. He held his arm perfectlv
still and blew gently on the wav-
ering pinionS till 1t swan awav
When a redbird flirted by. to his de-.
| light she whistled its call so per.
fectly that it wheeled In mid-Aight
and tilted inquiringly back toward
them.
As they descended the terrace again
to the pergola, he said There's only
one thing lacking at Damory Court
, a sun-dial."
Then you haven't found it?" she
cried delightedly. Come and let mo
show you
She led the way through the maze
of beds at one side till they reached
hedge laced thickly with Virginia
oreeper. He parted this leafy screen
bending back the springing fronds
that thrust against the flmsy 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, II could
believe it 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 daughter
Why. it seems like yesterday that
Shirley there was only knee-high to a
grasshopper-and 1 used to tell her
her hair was that color because She
ran through hell bareheaded. I'm
about a thousand years old 1
reckoni"
Meanwhile the two figures above
had pushed through the tangle into a
circular sunny space where stood a
short round pillar of red ONYX II
was sun-dial, its vine-clad 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 aRchaic lettering. Va
liant pulled away the clustering ivy
leaves and read: I count no hours
but the happy ones.
IF that had only been truela he
said.
'It is true. See how the vines hid
the sun from 1t. 1t 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. VIII it mark only
happy hours for me, / wonder? I'll
bride it with flowers"
white for happiness" he said
I'll put moonf1owers at it's base
and where you are standing Madonna
lilies. The outer part of the circle
shall have bridal wreath and white
irises, and they shall shade out into
pastel colors-mauveB and grays and
heliotropes. oh, / shall love this
spot!-perhaps sometime the best Of
ALL"
(Which do you love the most nowp'
He leaned slightly toward her. ons
hand on the dlars time-notched rim,
al -. H.. a. HAsx. NA
voice. Gould any other spot meaQ
to me what that acre under the hem
locks means?"
Her face was turned from his, her
fingers pulling at the drifting vine,
and q splinter of sunlight tangled in
her hair like lace of fireflies
81 could never forget it," he con-
tinued. 1.-THE thing that spoiled my
fathers life happened there, yet there
we two first talked, and there you"
DON'T" she said, facing him.
'Don't.'
"Ah, let me speak! | want to tell
you that l 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 / should remember
your face would be the last thing l
should see.s If T.
He paused, his veins beating 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 a
magical change. Shirley drew back.
| The soft gentian blue of her eyes
darkened. The lips that an instant
before had been tremulous parted In
low. delicious laugh. She swept
him a deep curtsey.