The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-17

szESEzSzEzEszEskszE2sszE2ESH&a stand beside her. I'm 50 unhappyl"
 Cherry. will you end it7" he hsk= | ed her. huslxiiy.
 She gave him 8 startled look | End it?' she faitered.
 Will you-do you think you are | brave enough to give everything else up for me?" he asked.
 "Peter!" said Cherry. hardly above a breath.
 'swili you go away with e7'" Peter went on, feverishly. That's the en1y way, now That's the only way-now' | Will you go away"
 "Go away." Cherry's face was asil- en as she moved her tragic and beau- tiful eyes to his. "Go away where ?" | "Anywhere." Peter answered, cons fuaedly "Anywhere!" He did not meet her look. his own went furttveiy seemed to regain self=eentrol I'm | talking like a foo1." he said, quickly. "t don't know what I'm saying half the time! I'm sorry-ffn sorry, Cher | ry, Don't mind me, Say that you'll | forgive me for what I saidi' He had taken her hands, and they | were looking diatressedly and sober ly at each other when an unexpected | Cherry's heart beat mad1y with teF= TOT. and Peter flushed deeply. 1t was Martin Lloyd's aunt, Mrs. North. their old neighher, who came | about the corner of the house, and | approached them smiiingiy. How much had she seen? Cherry asked l herself. in a panic. What were they doing ?-What were they saying as she tude betrayed them7
 Mrs, North was the same Ieud- iaughing, ehserful woman as ef old: f4I
 "purange9" Belle told me seme- 1 thing about his going theFa," sine said. How long you been hefe, GheFry9"
 "fve been with Ahx and Peter for for several weeks," Cherry said, un= | easily. Her eyes met Peters and he conveyed reassurance to her with a | look.
 "When you going back. dear?" Mrs. | North asked, with so shrewd a glance from Cherry's exquisite rosy face to l Peters that he felt a fresh pang of suspicion. She had seen something | 'Why, I've been rather-rather CT kept here by the--the lawsuit. haven't I. l Peter?" Cherry explained. But I ex- pect to go soon as 1t is all settled! Here's AlIx." she said, gladly, as Anx came downstairs. I'll bet you three are having real good times!" Mrs. North said, with a curious look from one to the other. You know what I hope" Alix told her. lis that Cherry and Martin will 1 always keep the old place open now 1 I don't believe Cherry'u ever love an- | other place as she does the valley l will you, Sis?" AIix ended, eagerly. 1 Cherry met the arm her sister linked around her, halfway, and gave her l a. troubled smile.
 i And yet few moments later when some quest took Peter suddenly from 1 the group, she watched the shabby | corduroy suit, the laced high boots. i and the black head touched with gray 1 disappear in the direction of the | kitchen with tearing pain at. her 1 heart. Her father had asked her to
 wait. wait until she was nineteen! Nineteten had seemed old then. She | had felt at nineteen she would have merely delayed the great Joy of life | for nothing; at nineteen she would | be only so much older, so much more | desperately bent upon this marriage. l And Peter was there then, was com ing and going, sadvistng and teasing l her-so near. so accessible, loving her | even then. had she but known it! That engagement might as easily and how much more wiselyi-have
 been with Peter; the presents. the l gowns. the wedding would have been i the same, to her childish egotism; the rest how different; The rest would | have been light instead of darkness | joy instead of pain. dignity and de- velopment and increasing content in 1 stead of all the months of restless
 criticism and doubt and disillusion- ment The very scene here. with Mrs. l NOTIh ana AllN. 1nlSnI easily nave been, with Cherry as the wife of Peter. | Cherry as her sisters hostess, in the | mountain cabin
 l At the thought her heart suffocated her. She stood dazedly looking out
 of the old kitchen window. and her senses swam in a sudden spasm of pain.
 CHAPTER XIV | You and I must go awayI" said Peter. 'I can't stand it. I love you. love you so dearly, Cherry. I can't think of anything else any more It's like a fever-it's like a sickness. I'm | never happy, any more unless my take you somewhere. where we can be happy together?"
 Cherry turned her confident. child ish face toward him; her lashes gilt tered, but she smiled:
 | ''I love you. Peterl" she said And
 the words sounding softly through
 the silence of the garden. died away
 on the warm night air like music.
 In the two weeks since the day at
 the old house they had not chanced to
 be often alone, and tonight, for the first time, Cherry admitted that she
 could fight no longer. They talked
 as lovers. his arm about the soft little clinging figure her small. firm fingers
 tight in his own. He had squared
 about on the great log that was their
 seat so that his ardent eyes were
 closer to her; the world held nothing
 but themselves It was eight o'clock
 ''So this is the thing that was wait
 ing for us all these years, Cherry, ever
 since the time you and AliX used tc
 dam my brook and climb my oak
 trees!''
 'I never dreamed of ft!" Cherry
 said, with wonder in her tone
 If we had dreamed of it. Peter began, and stopped.
 "Ah, if we had, it would all be diff | 1rifh o4