The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-27

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 The luncheon over, Miss Norton and her mother prepared to ascend to their rooms. MT. Magee maneuvered so as to meet the girl at the foot of the stairs.
 Wont you come back,' he whis- pered softly, land explain things to 8 poor hermit who is completely at sea?"
 9ssWhat things?' she asked.
 What it all means,s he whispered. sfWhy you wept in the station, why you invented the story of the actress, why you came here to brighten my drab exile-what this whole comedy of Baldpate inn amounts to anyhow ?,
 She only looked at him with unbe- Heving eyes.
 You can hardly expect me to credit that" she said. "L must go up now and read mamma into the pleasant land of thin girllsh figures that is her afternoon siesta. l may come back and talk to you after awhile, but I don't promise to explain
 "Come back pleaded MT. Magee. That Is all ask 7
 "A tiny boon,'' she smiled sI grant it''
 Laughing. MT. Magee sought the soli- tut1e Of No. 2.
 ..After all, Pm here to work 7 he told himself. Alarms and excursions and blue eyes must not turn me from4my tnsk. Let's see-what was my task2 deep heart searching novel, q novel devoid of Tabid melodrama. It becomes more difficult every minute here at Baldpate inn. But that should only add more zest to the struggle. de vote the next two hours to thought =
 Re pulled his chair up before the blazing hearth and gazed into the red depths. But his thoughts refused to turn to the masterpiece that was to be born on Baldpate They roamed to far or Broadway; they strolIed with Helen Fauikner-the girl he meant to marry if he eyer got around to it. along dignifed Fifth avenue. Then joyousIy they dropped to far more alluring, more human girl, who press ed a bit of eambrie to her face in a railway station, while ginger haired agent .peeped through the bars. Soon MT. l8ageess thoughts were climbing BaIdpate mountain, there to wander in a mystic maze Of ghostIy figures which appeared from the shadows. holding aloft in triumph gigantic keys. MT. Magee had slept but little the night bef0re The quick December dusk ill., cd No. q when he aWoke with a start.
 
 the girl to come back to the office and berated himself to think that probably she had done so only to find that he was not there. Hastily straightening his he and dashing the traces of sleep from his eyes with the aid of cold wa ter, be ran <IoWnstairs.
 The great bare room was in dark ness save for the faint red of the fire. Before the fireplace sat the girl of the station, her hair gIeaning with new eple1dor 1n that light. She looked in mock repFovaI at Mir Magee.
 For shame ' she said Ito be late at the tysting place
 A tllousand pardons,' z Mir. Magee replied fell asleep and dreamed of a girl who wept n a raiway station, and she WAS So altogether charming I could not tear myself away
 ssI fear. she laughed, ssyou are old in the ways of the world A passion for sleep seems to have seized the her niits. The professor has gone to his room for that purpose. and MT Bland. his broken heart forgot, slumbers over there.'' She pointed to the haberdash- CT inert in q big chair drawn up near the clerks desk. s0nly you and in all the world awake ''
 Pretty lonesome, isn't il? Mir. Ma gee glanced over his shoulder at the shadows that crept in on them.
 II was finding it very busy when you came she answered You see, have known fhe inn when it was gay with summer people, and as sat here by the fire pretended I saw the ghosts of a lot of the people I knew hitting about in the dusk The rock iI7p chair. fIfff sailed by,,-sssEss 6fs5
 The What p
 sBlaek lag flying, decks cleared for actionI saw the rocking chair fleet go by She smiled faintly we all ways called them that Bitter, un- kind old women who sat hour after hour on the veranda and rocked and gossiped and gossiped and rocked And saw some poor little ghosts weeping in corner" she went on; "a few that the feet had run down and sunk in the sea of gossip. little ghost whose mother had not been all she should have, been, and the fleet found it out and rocked and whispered and she went away. And a few who were poor-the most terrible of sins to them the fleet showed no mercy. And fine proud girl, AIyra Thornhill, who was engaged to 8 man named Kendrick, and who never dared come here again after Kendrick suddenly dis appeared because of the whispered dis hcnors the fleet heaped upon his head 2
 What wicked womenr' said Magee
 sNThe w1ckedest women in the world .'' answered the girl. .'But every sum mer resort must have it's feet I doubt if any other ever had it's admiral though, and that makes Baldpate su- prene' 2
 stT+s of7r,, 9,, aYes. He isn't really that, imagine sort of a vice pr an assistant or whatever it is, long ago retired from the navy Every summer he comes here and the place revolves about him. It's all so funny! I wonder if any other crowd attains such heights Of