The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-29
CHAPTER I

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 Cherry Strickland came in the door Of the Strickland house, and shut it behind her, and stood so with her hands behind her on the knob and her bosom rising and falling on deep, ecstatfc breaths. It 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 clos ed the door with such noiseless haste There was nothing to run for, But it was as if she feared that the joy within her might escape into the moonlight night that was so perfum- ed with Hlacs and the scent of wet woods. She was afraid that it was all too wonderful to be true, that she would awaken in the morning to find 1t only a dream, that she would some how 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 it away, and to 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 or 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 panting psnni0. and slowing and glorified 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, exult- ed 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 a child, after all.
 Consciously or unconsc1ously, 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, soft young body resting against him, her slim ankles crossed. and her cheek dropped against his thick silver hair
 Alix was reading, and deamily scratching her ankle as she read; she was a tall, awkward girl, younger far at twenty-one than Cherry was at eighteen. pretty in gypsyish way, un- tidy as to hair, with round black eyes, high, thin cheek-bones marked with scarlet, and a wide, humorous mouth that was somehow droll in it's express sion even when she was angry or seri- ouS.
 Anne, smiling demurely over her white sewing. was a small, prettily made little woman, with silky hair trimly 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 engaged-engag ged-en- gagedi
 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 been given him. a tiny crying thing in a basket to fill the great gap her mothers going had left in his heart.
 MT. Lloyd had to take the g o'clock train" Cherry answered her father dreamily, and he and Peter walked home with me:'' She did not add that Peter had left them at his own turning. a quarter of a mile away.
 "I thought he wasn't going to be al Mrs North's for dinner" Anne -ob- served quietly, in the silence. She had been informally asked to the Norths for dinner that evening her. oil hnr reason than that attractive Martin Lloyd was presumably not to bt there.
 thought he had to go to town at G. just stopped in to give them Dad: message, and they leased me to stay You knew where I was, didn't you Dad ?" she murmured-
 Mrs North telepboned about 6 , and said you were there. but she didnn >.s Say> that MT. Lloyd waS,' Anne said with a faint hint of discontent in hel tone.
 s eyes upon the two, and suspended he reading for a moment. Alixs attitude toward the opposite sex was one O. calm contempt, outwardfy- But sh' had made rather an exception of Mar tin Lloyd, and had recently had a con versation with him on the subject O sensible, platonic friendships betwee1 men and women. At the mention O his name she ioked up. remember ing this talk with a little thrill
 His name had thrilled Anne, too. al though she betrayed no sign of 1t a! she sat quietly matching silks. Il fact all three of the girls were quit ready to fall in love with young Lloyd if two of them had not actually dom so.
 Cherry had not been at home whel Martin first appeared in Mill Valley and the older girls had written her visiting friends in Napa,that she mus ,f t,n n
 Martin was mining engineer; h had been employed in a Nevada mine but was visiting his cousin in the val ley now before going to new posi- tion in June. In it's informal fashion Mill Valley had entertained him; h mad tramped to the big forest fiv miles away with the Strtcklands, an