Middletown transcript., 1916-01-01

hostess, and cooled her face at an
open window in the side vestibule.
There was a new note in Rev. Smith
Boyd's voice; not greater depth nor
mellowness nor sweetness, but a
something else. What was it? It was
call, that was it; a call across the
gulf of futdrity.
They came after her. Ted and Lu-
cile had arrived. She was in vortex.
Dick Rodley hemmed her in a corner,
and proposed to her again, just for
practice, within eyeshot of a dozen
people, and he did it so that onlookers
might think that he was compliment
ing her on her clever coiffure or dis
cussing new operetta; but he made
her blush, which was the intention in
the depths of his black eyes. 1t seemed
that she was in perpetual blush to-
night, and something within her
seemed to be surging and halting and
wavering and quivering! Her Aunt
Helen Davies, rather early in the eve
ming, began to act stiff and formal.
Go home" she murmured to Lucille.
"All this excitement is bad for Calls
beauty"
After that the exodus became gen.
eral, until only Allison and Rev. Smith
Boyd remained. The latter young gen.
tleman had taken his flutteringly hap
py mother home early in the evening,
and he had resorted to dullness with
such of the thinning guests as had
seemed disposed to linger.
Aunt Helen thought she had better
go upstairs after that, and she glanced
into the music room as she passed,
and knitted her brows at the tableau.
Rev. Smith Boyd, who seemed unusu-
ally fine looking tonight, stood leaning
against the piano, watching Gail with
an almost incendiary gaze. That
young lady, steadily resisting an i'm
pulse to feel her cheek with the back
of her hand, sat on the end of the
piano bench farthest removed from
the rector and directed the most of
her attention to Allison, who was less
disconcerting. Allison, casting an oc-
casional glance at the intense young
rector, seemed preoccupied tonight;
and Mrs. Helen Davies, pausing to
take her sister Grace with her, walked
up the stairs with a forefnger tapping
at her well-shaped chin. She seemed
to have reversed places with her sis
ter tonight, for Mrs. Sargent was su-
premely happy, while Helen Davies
was doing the family worrying.
She could have hidden Allison adieu
had she waited very few minutes.
He was a man who had spent a life
time in linking two and two together,
and he abided unwaveringly by his de-
ductions. There was no mistaking the
nature of the change which was so ap-
parent in Rev. Smith Boyd; but ALI
son, after careful thought on the mat
ter, was able to take comparatively
early departure.
"I'll see you tomorrow, GAIL" he OBJ
served finally. Rising, he crossed to
where she sat, and, reaching into her
lap, he took both her hands. He let
her arms swing from his clasp, and,
looking down into her eyes with smil-
ing regard, he gave her hands an extra
pressure, which sent, for the hun
dredth time that night, a surge of
color over her face.
Rev. Smith Boyd, blazing down at
that scene, suddenly felt something
crushing under his hand. 1t was the
light runner board of the music rack,
and three hairs, which had lain in
placid place at the crown of his head, |
suddenly popped erect. Ten thousand
years before, had these three been so
grouped, Allison would have felt a
stone ak on the back of his neck, but |
as it was he passed out unmolested, |
nodding carelessly to the young rec
tor and bestowing on Gail a parting |
look which was the perfection of easy
assurance.
Rev. Smith Boyd wasted not min
ute in purposeless hesitation or idle |
preliminary conversation.
Call" he said, in a voice which |
chimed of all the love songs ever writ
ten, which vibrated with all the love
passion ever breathed, which pleaded |
with the love appeal of all the domi- |
nant forces since creation. Gail had |
resumed her seat on the end of the |
piano bench, and now he reached |
down and took her hand, and held it,
unresisting. She was weak and limp,
and she averted her eyes from the
burning gaze which beamed down on
her. Her breath was fluttering, and |
the hand which lay in her lap was cold
and trembling. Gail, l love you!" He
bent his head and kissed her hand.
The touch was fire, and she felt her
blood leap to it. Gail, DEAR" and his
voice was like the suppressed cres-
cendo of a tremendous organ flute;
Il come to you with the love of man
1 come to you with the love of one
inspired to do great deeds, not just
to lay them at your feet, but because
you are in the world" He bent lower,
and tried to gaze into the brown eyes
under those huttering lashes. He held
her hand more tightly to him, clasped
it to his breast, oppressed her with
the tremendous desire of his whole
being to draw her to him, and hold
her close, as one and a part of him for
all time to come, mingling and merg-
ing them into one ecstatic harmony
Gail! Oh, Gail, Call"
There was a cry in that repetition ]