The Mount Holly news., 1918-08-20

day she returned from the CITY she
left the table and descended into the
old garden. The sun was still warm
/ and golden and the wood thrushes
somewhere in the Pritchard shrubbery
were just beginning their long evening
song. Hester tried not to see the
change till she was actually in the
garden. Then a strange sense of free
dom and emancipation came over her.
Already the plants and growing things
In her garden had profted by the in
crease of air and sunshine that the
passing of the hedge had allowed. The
coiumbines and tulips were out earlier
than usual and 1t seemed to Hester as
II their colors were deeper and gayer
than in the old days when they were
hedged In by the twelve-foOt privet.
And 1t was as If new world had
been opened and discovered to her
when she first permitted her eyes to
wander beyond the line where the
privet had once been placed, over there
In the fairy land Of light green leaves
and foliage where the wood thrushes
sang. She had not seen that realm for
ten years, not since the day the high
board fence was taken down, and in
consequence of that she was hurried
away by Aunt Bethiah to be gone until
The newly planted privet should have
taken its place. Could it be that all
these years that fairyland of leaves
and blossoms had been there just be-
yond the privet? Hester was wonder
ing.
And then came the voice Of Judge
Pritchard. who must have been in his
garden behind one of his lilac bushes
all the time that she was inspecting
her OWE transformed domain.
Neither Hester nor Robert said any
thing very profound or clever or worth
remembering that evening when they
spoke for the first time in ten years.
Each had known from the time they
knew that the hedge had to go that
their speaking would be the inevitable
result. Perhaps that is why Hester had
felt so especially guilty when she stood
before old Aunt Bethiahs picture
few minutes before. The spell cast by
Aunt Bethiah was entirely broken
when Hester permitted herself to be
urged across that old barrier on the
excuse eH looking at some especially
luxurious rose-colored columbines that
Judge Pritchard insisted had been
vagrants from her garden and had
SnoWn themselves a season or so be-
fore.
\ knew they We're yours" he told
her. land that is why cherished them
so. ! had the gardener nurse them like
Orchids Hester was kneelina over to
touch the silky blossoms with her fin
gers. Il wonder how they dared go
through the hedge7" was afl she could
think Of saying, and then her eyes and
those Of Robert Pritchard met and both
knew that the barrier that had gone
down with the hedge could never be
replaced.
After they had seated themselves on
the rustic bench under Judge Pritch-
ards lilacs, on the excuse of hearing
the thrushes' song. Hester volunteered
the suggestion that It really seemed
only day SINCE the last time she had
sat on the same bench under the lilacs.
And then she wondered whether she
had said anything that was too dis
loyal to the memory Of BethIah Mar
den, the STERN old aunt who had
brought her UP and left her all her
property.
! Robert Pritchard answered this by
taking Hester's hand In hts exactly as
he had that last time, ten years before,
and that, too, seemed quite natural,
though Hester blushed quite as If she
had been twenty instead Of thirty.
"You didn't go away because you
wanted to?" he asked.
Hester shook her head.
@Tell me Just what happened and