Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1921-08-19
CHAPTE Err I.

of the Strickland house, and shut 1t
behind her, and stood so, with her
hands behind her on the knob, and her
slender body leaning forward, and her
bosom rising and falling on deep,
ecstatic breaths. 1t was May in Cali
fornia, she was just eighteen, and for
twenty-one minutes she had been en-
gagged to be married.
She hardly knew why, after that
last farewell to Martin, she had run
so swiftly up the path, and why she
had flashed into the house, and closed
the door with such noiseless haste.
There was nothing to run for But 1t
was as if she feared that the joy with
in her might escape into the moonlight
night that was so perfumed with
lilacs and the scent of wet woods. She
was afraid that II was all too won
derful to be true, that she would
awaken in the morning to find IL only
a dream, that she would somehow fall
short of Martins ideal-somehow fail
him-somehow turn all this magic OF
moonshine and kisses into ashes and
heartbreak.
She was a miser with her treasure,
already; she wanted to fly with it,
and to hide 1t away, and TO test It's
reality In secret, alone. She had
come running in from the wonderland
down by the gate, just for this, just
to prove to herself that it would not
vanish in the commonplaceness Of the
shabby hall, would not disappear be-
fore, the everyday contact of everyday
things.
Dad was in the sitting room, with
the girls. The doctors house was full
Of girls. Anne, his niece, was twenty
four; Alix, Cherry's sister, three years
yOunger-how staid and unmarried
and undesired they seemed tonight to
painting and glowing and glorified
eighteenl Anne, with Alix's erratic
help, kept house for her uncle, and
was supposed to keep sharp eye on
Cherry, too. But she hadn't been
sharp enough to keep Martin Lloyd
from asking her to marry him, exulted
Cherry, as she stood breathless and
laughing in the dark hallway.
An older woman might have gone
upstairs, to dream alone Of her new
Joy, but Cherry thought that it would
be "fun" to join the family, and "act
as if nothing had happenedW She
was only a child, after all.
Consciously or unconsciously, they
had all tried to keep her a child, these
three who looked up to smile at her
as she came in. One of Them rosy,
gray-headed, magnificent at sixty, was
her father, whose favorite she knew
she was. He held out his hand to her
without closing the book that was in
the other hand, and drew her to the
wide arm OF his chair, where she set
tied herself with her soft young body
resting against him, her slim ankles
crossed, and her cheek dropped
against his thick silver hair.
Alix was reading, and dreamily
scratching her ankle as she read; she
was a tall, awkward girl, younger far
at twenty-one than Cherry was at
eighteen pretty In gipsyish way, I'M
tidy as to hair, with round black eyes,
high, thin cheek-bones marked with
scarlet, and wide, humorous mouth
that was somehow droll In It's express
sion even when she was angry or seri-
Gus.
Anne smiling demurely over her
white sewing, was a small, prettlly
made little woman, with silky hair
trinity braided, and rather pale,
small face with charming and regular
features. Anne had Admirers" too
Cherry reflected, looking at her to-
night, but neither she nor Alix had
ever been neutrality-suspicious.
gagged
aren't you home earlyf" said DR..
Strickland, rubbing his cheek against
his youngest daughters cheek In
sleepy content. He was never quite
happy unless all three girls were In
his sight, but for this girl he had al
ways felt an especial protecting fond
ness. He had followed her exquisite
childhood with more than q fathers
usual devotion, perhaps because she
really had been an exceptionally en-
dearing child perhaps because she had
been given him, tiny crying thing In
a basket, to fill the great gap her
mothers going had left in his heart.
"Mr. Lloyd had to take the nine
O'clock traln," Cherry answered her
father dreamily, land he and Peter
walked home with met" She did not
add that Peter had left them at his
own turning, a quarter of mile away.
81 thought he wasn't going to be at
Mrs. Norths for dinner" Anne OBJ
served quietly, in the silence. She
had been informally asked TO the
Norths fog dinner that evening her
self, and had declined for no other
reason than that attractive Martin
Lloyd was presumably not to be there.
"He wasn't" Cherry said. "He
thought he had to go to town at six.
just stopped in to give them Dads