The Irish standard., 1914-03-21

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gish breeze ebbed or swelled. It was
eleven.
She drew back, dropped the curtain
to shut out the wan glimmer, and in
the darkness crept into the soft bed
as If into hiding-place.
. O
A warm sun and an air mildly mel
low. A faint gold-shadowed mist over
the valley and q soft lilac haze blend.
ing the rounded outlines Of the hills.
Through the shrubbery at Damory
Court cardinal darted like Grim.
son shuttle, to rock impudently from
a fleering limb, and here and there
on the bluish-ivory sky, motionless az
q pasted wafer, hung hawk; from
time to time one Of these wavered and
slanted swiftly down, to climb once
more in huge spiral to its high tower
Of sky.
Perhaps 1t wondered. a. its tele-
scopic eye looked down. That had
been its choicest covert. that dishev-
eled tangle where the birds held Per.
petual carnival. the weasel lurked in.
the underbrush and the rabbit lined
his windfall. Now the wildness was
gone. A pergola. glistening white, now
upheld the runaway vines, making .
sickle-like path from the upper ter
race to the lake. In the barn loft tho
pigeons still quarrelled over their new
cotes of fresh pine. and under clump
OF locust trees at little distance from
the house. q half.dozen dolls cabins
on stills stood waiting the honey-stor.
age Of the black and gold bees. 1.
There were new denixens, also.
These had arrived In . dozen zinc
tanks and willow hampers. to the
amaze OF sleepy express clerk ut the
railroad station: two swans now sailed
majestically over the nly.ponds Of the
lake. along It's gravel rim and . pair
OF bronze-colored ducks waddled and
preened, and its placid surface rippled
and broke to the sluggish backs Of
goldfish and the flirting fms Of red
Japanese carp.
The house itself wore another cir.
Its look of unkemptness had largely
vanished. The soft gray tone of age
remained, but the bleakness and for
lornness were gone; there was about
all now a warmth and genial bearing
that limited at mellowed beauty, fire.
light and cheerful voices within.
Valiant heaved long sigh of salts
faction as he stood In the sunlight gag.
ing at the results of his labors. He
was not now the hippant boulevardier
to whom money was the sine qua non
of existence. He had learned a sover-
eign lesson-one gained not through
the push and fight of crowds, but In
the simple peace of a countryside, un.
vexed by the clamor of gold and tho
complex problems of competitive ex-
istence-that he had inherited a need
of activity, of achievement that he had
been born to do.
"Chun," he said. to the dog rolling
on his back in the grass. what do
you think of it all. anyway" He
reached down, seized a hind leg and
whirling him around like a teetotum,
sent him flying into the bushes.
whence Chum launched again upon
him. like a catapult. He caught the
white shoulders and held him vise.like.
lust about right, Ell? But wait TN
We get those ramblersl"
And to think" he continued, within.
sically releasing him, that might
have gone on. one of the little-neck-
clam crowd I've always trained with,
1t the same old pace. till the Yer
Palm. Beach career got
double Nelson on me and the umpire
counted me out. At this moment
wouldn't swap this old house and land.
and the sunshine and that garden
and Unc' Jefferson and Aunt Daph
and the chickens and the birds and
all the rest of it. for a mile of MIL
iionaires' Row."
He went into the house and to tho
library. The breeze through the wide.
flung bow-window was fluttering the
papers on the desk and the map on
the wall was Tapping sidewise. He,
went to straighten 1t, and then saw
what he had not noticed before-that
It covered something that had been let
into the plaster. He swung it aside
and made an exclamation.
He was looking at a square, uncom-
promising wall-safe, with round fg-
nred disk of white metal on it's face.
He knelt before it and tried it's knob.
After a moment 1t turned easily. But
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