Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-27

hundred years, and was going calling on
Christopher Columbus. Climbing and still
climbing, we finally reached a dilapidated
garden gate, with an aloe plant on each side
of it, and inside was small, bare stone
house, with little Helen sitting on the walk
playing with her doll Then my heart gave
leap; for | knew was at the right place
The child did not recognize me, and looked
frightened when asked her to take me to
her mother. The room we entered was
empty, and struck me as mighty cold and
comfortless, with its stone flags and scant
furniture, more like a horse stall than a
human habitation, and it shocked me that
Stella should live there. From the stairs
above voice called out, who's there?' or
something meaning that in Italian, and the
voice was Stella's.
ats only old Dobbin come back" | an
swered, and then down she rushed, hardly
knowing whether to laugh or cry, she seemed
so glad to see me. She was poorly dressed,
and looked pale and wan and thin, with dark
lines under her beautiful eyes; and | think
she would have kissed me, only was not
prepared for it, and could not help being
awkward and constrained. But our hands
stayed in each others till at last, recovering
herself, she caught up little Grace, who was
toddling down the stairs after her, and asked
me to come up and sit on the balcony.
NOW, am good American, and believe
: = we lead the world in everything, from
motor lamps down, and that there is nothing
the foreigner makes that we can't duplicate
twenty per cent. better, and more reliable,
workmanlike, and honest; but when it
comes to the Bay of Amalf want to say
Italy puts one all over us. Sitting there on
that balcony, l thought the outlook was the
loveliest had ever seen in my life; and the
ragged, happy people, and the old, red tiled
houses, and the fishing boats with their
high, curved sails all harmonized with the
bay, SO that it was like a wonderful picture
with nothing to mar it.
And here Stella and sat side by side, still
holding hands, while the two little girls
stared at us with their round, wondering
eyes.
Il want to take you back with me-" /
said, emboldened somehow by her clasp, and
by the sight of that lovely bay, which might
have been lifted out of fairyland. Il want
to take you back as my wife
| guess she knew that was what had
brought me: for she only paled a little, but
otherwise did not act surprised nor draw
away her hand.
Il am not the pretty woman was once,
Mike" she said, kind of faltering and sad.
when look at myself in the glass could
cry"
"You are always beautiful to me-" an
swered.
4Then there are the children she said.
all be a father to Them" | answered.
"They are young enough never to know the
difference.
"And the disgrace!" she murmured. "Have
you thought of that, Mike? The disgrace
the stigma"
mo person can ever disgrace another"
answered.
But the world won't think So" she said
in the same timid, hopeless way. "The world
never forgives and never forgets.'
@If the world doesn't like our getting mar
RED, it can go plumb to hell" l answered
more warmly than | ought. ANY other OBJ
jection?"
"No!7 she said, almost in whisper, and
would have gone on, only she couldn't; for
her heart like mine, seemed too full for
words So we sat there long while in 81
lence, watching the sun.sink in that beauti-
full, beautiful bay and the first glimmer of
the evening star. Then | remembered the
lines on the old silver box that had had
engraved there years before, when Stella had
been SO far from me and as out of reach as
the star we now saw reflected in the water
below, and | repeated them softly: