Evening star., 1915-03-31

Kept coming before her. Had she heard
, him sob as he turned to go, or was 1t
only her inauguration?
What nonsense" she said sharply
to herself Those children are taught
to b.l, as soon as they can talk, and
he pitifcl stories they tell are manu-
featured for them before they set out
Besides. il ! gave every beggar who
s9ass to my door l should soon De
q HsOf them myself.
But try as she would she could not
put the thought of the child from her.
Hts big. sad eyes seemed TO gaze re
proachfully at her from every corner.
Later. as she sat alone in the big din
Ing room. eating the dinner that Myra
mad hurried home through the snow to
prepare she wondered suddenly If Ac
had been Ilungry. He had looked very
White and thin. she remembered-and
cold. Why had she not brought him
iu and given him some money? she
felt 4 pang of remorse In her hard, old
Ieart-the first feeling of any kind
that had stirred it in many year.
That night Miss Elzina opened box
that had been locked for forty years
and took from II ar old daguerreotype
Of the lover who had married another
v oman. Forty years, And each year
- IL passed had left Miss Elzina more
embittered and cynical than she had
been the year before, for there are
| some natures whose griefs time cannot
soften. As she looked at the pictured
fac Of nearly half a century before
W.1iSg EILiU2 knew SuUCSUIS why tne
memory Of the chiid's eyes had stirred
her SO strangely. They were like his
IS. that had always been thoughtful
and rather sad. even when his lips had
-uiled. For tie tirst time in all the
.ssrs since Maynard Bolt had married
The other woman. Miss Elzna was able
20 think of EiIl without bitter hatred ::
tonight she va. conscious OF only 2
;eeat grief and loneliness her life had
Nen 50 empty and worthless. robbed
" that makes a Womans life worth
she had grown hard and cruel
her loneliness. And again the
tbO4ght OF the child she had turned
~ from her door came to her. She
buried her face IN her hands with a
.oaI..
When Miss Elzina rose from her
had begun to form in her mind-a
crazy, impossible plan she told her
ssI But in the days that followed
7 persisted in occupying her thoughts,
Stronger hold the idea seemed to have
upon her; IL would not be shaken off.
Iis3 Elzina was going to adopt a
child. Old Ayra nearly tainted when
tro- at the orphan asylum, although
sfis lad never heard Of Miss E.lz ma
seemed TO find the request and Miss
l.izlna > personal appearance oddly.
| Incompatible, But plainly the appli-
cant was person of means. and che
stated that she desired to adopt the
child legally and make him her heir.
II xas not for the matron to reason
why. Instead. she inquired just what
kind Of child Miss Eizina preferred
As 4 matter Of fact, Miss ElZina had
not thought that far She knew very
little OF children. and in her plans the
child to be adopted had been merely
child-some one TO love and care
for: some one who would in turn per
aaps learn to love Miss Elzina herself
l PLAINLY, however. some sort OF speci
HcatioHs were expected of her Miss
Elzina thought hard. And SO II was
SNESl that = description Of the only
ciiIT she had ever noticed closely
should come 70 Miss Elzina's mind
y want. she said with hesitation
q little boy of seven or eight, with
pig. dark eyes, in white, hungry