The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-04-08

ID.
Yes, go, Shirley" said her mother.
Haven't l any privileges at all? Can't
even faint when feel like it, without
calling out the fire-brgade? You'll
pampeI me to death and heaven knows
| don't need it,"
You won't let me telephone for Doc
tor Southall?"
Certainly not!
And you are sure it was nothing
but the rOses?"
why, what else should it be?" said
her mother almost peevishly. 'T must
really have the arbors thinned out. On
heavy nights it's positively overpower-
ing. Go along now, and we'll talk
about it tomorrow. I can ring if l
want anything"
In her room Shirley undressed
thoughtfully. There was between her
and her mother a fine tenuOus bond
OF sympathy and feeling as rare, per-
haps, as it was lovely. She could not
remember when the other had not
been semi-invalid, and her earliest
Childhood recollections were punctu-
ated with the tap Of the little cane.
Tonights sudden indisposition had
shocked and disturbed her; to faint
at a rush OF perfume seemed to sug-
gest growing weakness that was
, alarming. Tomorrow, she told herself,
she would send Ranston with a wagon
load Of the roses to the hospital at
Charlottesville.
She slipped on pink shelI-shaded
dressing-gown Of slinky silk with a
riot Of azaleas scattered in the weave,
and then, dragging her chair before
the open window, drew aside the light
curtain and began to brush her hair.
All at once her gaze fell upon the
floor, and she sbrank backward from
twisting thread-like thing whose bright
saffron-yellow glOwed sharply against
the dark carpet. She saw in an in
slant, however, that 1t was nothing
more dangerous than fragment Of
love-vine from the garden, which had
clung to her skirt. She picked up
the tiny mass Of tendrils and with
slow smile tossed it over her right
shoulder through the window. 'If it
takes root" she said aloud, my sweet
heart loves me-" She leaned from the
sill to peer down into the misty gar
den, but could not follow it's fall.
Long ago her visitor would have
reached Damory Court. She had
vision of him wandering, candle in
hand, through the empty echoing
rooms, looking at the vOiceless pOr-
traits on the walls, thinking perhaps
OF his father, of the fatal duel of which
he had never known. She liked the
way he had spoken Of his father!
AS she leaned, out Of the stiffness
there came to her ear mellow sound.
1t was the bell of the courthouse In
the village. She counted the strokes
falling clearly or family as the slug
gish breeze ebbed or swelled. 1t was
eleven.
She drew back, dropped the curtain
to shut out the wan glimmer, and in
the darkness crept into the soft bed
as il into hiding-place.
A warm sun and an air mildly mel
low. A faint gold-shadowed mist over
the valley and soft lilac haze blend
ing the rounded outlines of the hills.
Through the shrubbery at Damory
Court q cardinal darted like a GRIM
son shuttle, to rock impudently from
a fleering limb, and here and there
on the bluish-ivory sky, motionless as
a pasted wafer, hung a hawk; from
time to time one of these wavered and
slanted swiftly down, to climb once
more in huge spiral to it's high tower
of sky.
Perhaps it wondered, as it's 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 q
sickle-like path from the upper ter
race to the lake. In the barn loft the
pigeons still quarrelled over their new
cotes Of fresh pine, and under q clump
Of locust trees at little distance from
the house, half-dozen dolls cabins
on stills stood waiting the hOney-stor-
age of the black and gold bees.
There were new denizens, also
These had arrived in a dozen zinc
tanks and willow hampers, to the
amaze Of a sleepy express clerk at the
railroad station: two swans now sailed
majestically over the lily-pOnds of the
lake. along its gravel rim and a pair
of brOnze-colored ducks waddled and
preened, and it's placid surface rippled
and broke to the sluggish backs Of
goldfish and the flirting fins Of red
Japanese carp.
The house itself wore anotl er air
It's look Of unkemptness had largely
vanished. The soft gray tone Cf age
remained, but the bleakness and for