News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-08-31
CHAPTER |.

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
iilacs and the scent of wet woods. She
was afraid that it was all too won
derful to be true, that she would
awaken in the morning to find 1t only
a dream, that she would somehow fall
short of Martins ideal-sOmehow fail
him-somehow turn all this magic Of
moonshne and kisses into ashes and
heartbreak.
She was miser with her treasure,
already; she wanted to fly with it,
and to hide it away, and 10 test its
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
eighteen! Anne, with AliXs cratic
help, kept house for her uncle, and
was supposed to keep a 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 happened' She
was only child, after all.
Consciously or unconsciously they
had all tried to keep her a child, these
three who looked up to smile at her
a Shn Ono If thAnl
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 a gipsyish way, I'M
tidy as to hair, With round black eyes,
high, thin cheek-bOnes marked with
scarlet, and a wide, humorous mouth
that was somehow dr0ll in its express
sion even when she was angry or seri-
Gus.
Anne, smiling demurely over her
white sewing was a small prettily
made little woman, with silky hair
trinity braided, and a 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 OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
gagged!
aren't you home early?" 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 fathers
usual devotion, perhaps because she
really had been an exceptionally en-
dearing child perhaps because she had
heen 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 train" Cherry answered her
Father dreamily, "and he and Peter |
walked home with me I" She did not |
ada that Peter had left them at his |
own turning, 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 for 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. Gle
thought he had to go to town at six
Just stopped in to give them Dads
message, and they teased rle to stay.