The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1919-11-21

| dinner, even when George Anderson
returned. Sunday evening was the
time. he explained, for going over the
weeks work with his factory man
ayers.
| When Lucy came home the autumn
was far enough advanced TO smell of
burning leaves, and for the annual
editorials, in the papers. on the purple
haze. the golden branches. the ruddy
fruit. and the pleasure of long cramps
in the brown forest. George had not
heard of her arrival, and he met her.
on the afternoon following that event.
| at the Sharons'. where he had gone in
the secret hope that he might hear
something about her. jamie Sharon
had just begun to- tell him that she
heard Lucy was expected home soon,
after having "a perfectly gorgeous
| me"-information which George re-
ceived with no responsive enthusiasm
when Lucy came demurely in, a
proper little autumn figure in green
and brown.
Her cheeks were flushed and her
dark eyes were bright indeed; evil
dences. as George supposed. Of the
excitement incidental to the perfectly
gorgeous time just concluded though
jamie and Mary Sharon both thought
they were the effect of Lucy's having
seen Georges runabout in front of the
house as she came in. George took on
| color. himself, as he rose and nodded
indifferently; and the hot suffusion TO
h0Rornn tod Re
area to include his neck and ears
Nothing could have made him much
more indignant than his consciousness
of these symptoms of the icy indiffer-
ence which it was his purpose not only
| to- show but to feel.
She kissed her cousins, gave George
her hand. said "How d'you do" and
took chair beside jamie with a COM
posture which augmented Georges in
dignation.
How d'you do?" he said. 81 trust
that ah-I trust-I do trust
| He stopped. for 1t seemed TO him
that the word trust" sounded idiotic.
Then, to cover his awkwardneSs, he
coughed and even to his own rosy
ears his cough was ostentatiously n
false one. Lucy sat silent and the
two Sharon girls leaned forward, star
| ing at him with strained eyes, their
| lips tightly compressed; and both were
but too easily diagnosed as subject to-
an agitation which threatened their
self-control. He began again.
Il tr-I hope you have had "a
pleasant time. 1 tr-I hope you are
well. 1 hope you are extremely
hope extremely-eXtremely
II beg your pardon?" Lucy said.
George was never more furious; he
! felt that he was making a spectacle
of himself" and no young gentleman
in the world was more loath than
| George Anderson Minafer to look a
! figure of 1un. And while he stood
there, undeniably such a figure. with
jamie and Mary Sharon threatening to
burst at any moment. if laughter were
longer denied them, Lucy sat looking
at him with her eyebrows delicately
| lifted in casual. polite inquiry. Her
own complete composure was what
most CALLED him.
Nothing of the slightest impor-
lancet" he managed to say. 81 was
| just leaving. GoOd-afternoon - And
with long strides he reached the door
and hasteleu through the hall; but
before he closed the door he heard
from jamie and Mary Sharon the out
burst of wild, irrepressible emotion
which his performance had inspired.
He drove home in n tumultuous
mood, q l almost ran down two ladies
who were engaged in absorbing con-
ver5ation at crossing. They were
his Aunt Fanny and Mrs. Johnson;
jerk of the reins at the last instant
saved them by a few inches; but their
conversation was so interesting that