The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1919-06-07
ON SUNSET HILL
BY CHRISTINE HAYES.

AS she pinned on her hat Anne
Warning suppressed savage desire to
tear 1t into shreds and instead smiled
encouragingly at her reflection in the
cheap square mirror.
"A good, brisk walk, and you'll be
a new woman, my DEAR" she said.
A good, brisk walk was Anne's stock
remedy for dark blue afternoon. It
had never failed. perhaps because she
was seldom troubled with dark blue
afternoons.
Indirectly the hat was responsible
for this one-hence the brief annihila-
tive impulse. Directly, however, a
tnoughtless remark was to blame, one
| OF those chance shots that hurt by
their very truth.
1t was Saturday, and halliday at
the office, so after lunch she had run
IL 70 see her sister. Her twelve-year-
old niece, Ruth, had greeted her with
"Oh. auntie, just love you in that
hat! Don't you think small hats are
50 much more becoming to middle-ageG
people?"
Anne had gasped, thankful that Ruth
vas rafting on without noticing her
discontinue. She had made a hur-
ried departure and, locking herself in
! her lodging house room, had striven to
| readjust her world. Somehow she had
never thought of herself as middle
| aged. And by modern standards she
| was not. The idea had come like a
shock, and 1t was not welcome. She
could not have told why. Certainly she
had expected to be middle-aged some
time.
Now, drawing on her gloves, she
peered into the mirror again, more
closely. Yes, the lines at the corners
Of her mouth were deepening. Picking
up her muff she walked down the stairs
rather slowly. At the street door she
paused moment, feeling as though
she We're about to face the world in
| new character.
Once outside, however, the clear, cold
air brought a rose pink to her cheeks
| and a sparkle to her eyes, and gradu-
| ally her sense of depression slipped
| away before the thousand-and-one in
terestlng things Anne always managed
| to see on her way.
"Ill walk out to Rolf" she decided,
"and just about get there in time to
see the sunset from that hill. Then
can take the car back"
Out in the more open spaces of the
suburbs, Anne faced her problem
| squarely.
"You must get used to the idea, Anne
| Waring," she admonished herself.
"You are middle-aged-middle
don't think it's the growing old that
you mind, though, so much as the
| growing old in Neutrality-suspicious.
restaurant surroundings. And your
surroundings are your own fault; but
| it's too late now. You were foolish
enough to let silly quarrel with Pc
ter spoil your whole life!'
But in spite of herself, Anne's mind
dwelt on Peter Lee rather wistfully.
Peter and she had been engaged for
almost a year when a dispute had oc.
Cured over some trivial matter. To
the dismay of each of them the dis
pute had of its own accord, it seemed
taken on the proportions Of quarrel.
Both had been obstinate and proud,
and at last Peter had gone away. Anne
had never heard from him since.
She was still thinking of him when
she reached Sunset HILL She had
lined her walk well, for the drama of
the sunset was just being staged, the
pine trees black against the glory of
the flaming sky. Breathlessly Anne
watched its gorgeous shifting.
"Anne Waring! What are you doing
on my hill? Didn't you see my tres
pass signs? Bu'. the Spirit of Lost
Happiness heeds no trespass signs. I,
of all men might have known that"
| At her name Anne had turned, to
see Peter Lee.
"But-1'm not the Spirit of Lost
Happiness" she protested, feeling
strangely as though they had parted
only yesterday.
| swell, If you're not the Spirit of
Lost Happiness, perhaps-would you
be the Spirit Of Happiness, Anne-not
lost, you know, but. found? You see
you've haunted my thoughts so long
that I'm bound to have you a spirit of
some kind. Anne, you could forgive
me-"
Anne forgave him.
"Peter," she whispered a few mo-
ments later, 'd-doesn't the sunset
grow old gracefully"
! Copyright, 1919, by the Mcclure News
| paper Syndicate)
|