The Green Forest tribune., 1916-09-15
AS LYDIA LIKED I By CATHERINE cRANMER.

high value upon it.
 On the first evening of q hopsa ,,... at Mrs. Hornsbys charming monntas' cottage, Lydia was taken in to dinna, by Jack Madison, who had taken tnrn. at teasing her and making love to ha' for years. Her neighbor on the oAo. side was Stanley Barnes, digni6os man of perhaps thirty-fiye who bes the double distinction of being a s,,o cessful lawyer and remarkahlo Shakespearean scholar.
 Dear me, Jack" said Lydia. in dramatic undertone, tell me somo thing from Shakespeare quick! Somo thing can throw in for good measure when talking to my distinguishes neighbor on the other side"
 Better not start anything with that wiseacre," said Jack. Tt will be vast. ed sweetness on your part and intel. lectual condescensiOn on his. Besides I saw you first and I love you"
 "Just for that!" Lydia indignantlv ignored Jacks avowal of his love and turned to Stanley Barnes with a win. ming smile in her sparkling brown eyes.
 "Mr Barnes, do you think the Shakespearean revival this yeqr will tend to create a more general interest in the immortal bard?"
 aStanley Barnes lifted his eyebrows and opened his gray eyes wide in sur. prise as he turned to reply.
 "Why'er, I hope so, Miss Parker" said MT. Barnes, doubtfully, and Lydia mistook his slowness in answering for the intellectual condescension Jack had predicted. The truth is that Stanley Barnes was thinking what a charming Katherine or Rosalind this vivacious questioner of his would make. She in- wardly determined that she would some day compel that terrific high brow" to recognize her as something more than a doll baby in conversation.
 The next morning Lydia crawled out of bed early to take peep at the mountain sunrise, and she saw Stanley Barnes setting out for climb all alone. Being already in an adventur- ous mood, she deedided to take an early morning ramble herself.
 In her corduroy suit and high brown boots Lydia started out for climb. The cool stiffness of the early morning made her feel very tiny and helpless and frightened the coppery tints in her hair, she was once more seized with the spirit of adventure, and went higher and higher, with eyes alert for all the beauties around her.
 Its absolutely perfect!" she said aloud. Nothing more Is needed"
 q agree with you, Miss Parker, yet I hope it will not mar the perfection of it if join you in enjoying It." Stan ley Barnes was standing on a large powder almost directly above Lydas head, and when she looked up and met the smiling question in his eyes she answered 1t with a frank smile that brought him quickly to her side.
 "Words are sadly unequal to all this," said Lydia, throwing out her hand to indicate the sweep from zenith to horizon.
 "'For we, which now behold these
 present days,
 Have eyes to wonder. but lack tongues
 to praise"
 Lydia was unfamiliar with this quo- tation, but she felt It's aptness so keen- ly that unconsciously she slipped her hand into Stanley's as her sign of ac- quiescence without words.
 That night, for the fourth and last time, Jack proposed to Lydia and was refused with more firmness than she occasions.
 Seeing Mrs. Hornsby corral Jack for bridge game, Lydia slipped from the room to avoid being similarly cap tured. She stood quite still for few moments thinking of all the pleasures she had enjoyed with Jack, but felt that she had been right in refusing him.
 ''The man I marry must have enough seriousness to recognize whaq little bit there is of it in me" sha unused, land Jack is even more friVol- ouS than l"
 Then she recalled how Stanley Barnes had that morning recognized her as she had resolved the evening before to make him recognize her-as something more than doll baby, or E. chattering society sparrow. At the sound of a step on the porch. sha turned and recognized the man who was in her thoughts approaching her.
 Are you also q refugee from bridge?" he asked. May join your
 "Yes," Lydia answered both of his questions with one word. T seemed to hear the bigness of things outside calling me-" AS Stanley joined her where she stood at the railing. soe added, q defy even your Mi. ShakeS- peare to find words to describe tue loveliness of this night"
 "'As you like it. lady fair" said Stanley, with a deferentiel bow, and so they stood there for a time 10 worthless enjoyment of the picture be- fore them.
 When Mrs. Hornsby's ample form appeared in the doorway and her voice called back to her guests that she was going to find those truants and punish them by making them man the music machine" they knew that their little hour was over, but went in without re- luctance, for-, Lydia had already as- sured Stanley that life, as he asked her to share it with him, would be just as she liked 1t and the very first record she put on the machine was Tt Was a Lover and His Lass"
 Copyright, 1916, by the Mcclure Newspa-