Charlevoix county herald., 1921-08-26

night, when l began 10 say eo"u-pHts,
and-it happened ] know that YOU
all hardly know me. and know That
Cherry is pretty young to settle down,
but think l can satisfy you, Doctor,
that you give her into safe hands, and
/ believe she'll never regret trusting
me!'
He had gotten to his feet as he spoke
and was holding the back Of his chair,
looking anxiously and eagerly into the
old mans eyes.
"Well-" said the doctor, touched,
I'm his gentlest tone, "well 1t had
to come, perhaps. l can't promise her
to you very soon, Mr.. Lloyd. But IL
you both are willing to walt, and IL
time proves this to be the real feel
ing, / don't believe you'll find me hard
on you"
That's all 1 ask, sir !" Martin said,
resuming his seat and his dinner. And
for the rest of the meal harmony and
gayety reigned.
After dinner Cherry and Martin, in
all the ecstatic first delight of recog-
nized love- went out to the wide front
porch, where there were wicker chairs,
under the rose vines. Alix alone
laughed at them as they went. Anne,
with a storm in her heart, played nOis-
lily on the piano, and the doctor, after
giving the doorway where Cherry had
disappeared q wistful look, restlessly
took to his armchair and his book, in
such desolation of spirit as he had not
known since the dark day Of her moth
er's death.
.
The next day Alix and the engaged
pair walked up to invite Peter to a
tennis fOursome on the old Blithedale
court. 1t was a Saturday, and as he
usually dined with them, or asked them
to dine with him on Saturday, they
were not surprised to find him busy
with a charcoal burner, under the
trees, compromising a marvellous dish
of chicken, tomatoes, cream and mush-
rooms.
"StOp your messing one second 7"
AliX said, catching him by the arm.
Congratulate these creatures-they-
they're going to be married Why
don't you congratulate them?"
Peter gave one long look at Mar
tin and Cherry, who stood laughing,
but little confused and self-con-
scious, too, in the grassy path. With a
shock like death i'm his heart, he real
lied that it was all over. Their pro-
lection of her, their suspicious, had
come too late. Blind child that she
was, she was committed to this fasci-
mating and mysterious adventure
His face grew dark with sudden
quickly and shook hands with Martin,
and was presently reproaching Cherry
for her secretiveness in his old, or
almost his old, way.
He arranged that they were to play
the tennis here on his own courts, and
later dine with him, but under his
hospitality and under the golden beau
ty of the day it was all pain-pain-
pain. 1t was agony to see her with
him, beginning to taste the rapture of
love given and returned; it was agony
to have the conversation return al
ways to Martin and Cherry, to the
first love affair. Peter felt that he
could have killed this newcomer, this
thief, this usurper Of the place that he
himself might have filed.
dads always said he disapproved
of long engagements" Alix commented,
amusedly, "but you ought to hear him
now! This thing-he won't even call
1t an engagement-it's an understand
ing, or a preference-is to be pro-
found secret, and Cherry's to he twen-
ty-one before any one else but our
selves knows"
Peter did not hear her. There was
beginning a little hope in his heart,
Girls did not always fulfill their first
engagements; did not often do so, in
fact. The thing was a secret; it might
well come to nothing, after all.
That was the beginning, and after
It, although 1t was arranged between
them all that nothing should he
changed, and that nobody but thela-
selves should share the secret, some
how life seemed different. Two or
three days after the momentous day
of the raising of the rose tree, Martin
Lloyd went to his mine at FL NidO,
and the interrupted current of life In
the brown bungalow supposedly found
its old groove.
But nothing was the same. The doc
tor in the first place, was more silent
and thoughtful than the girls had ever
seen him before. Anne and AliX knew
that he was not happy about Cherry's
plans, If the younger girl did not. With
A1ix only he talked of the engage
ment, and she knew from his COM
ments, his doubtful manner, that he
felt il to be a mistake. The ten years
difference between Cherry and Martin
distressed him; he spoke of 1t again
and again.
Cherry was changed, too, and not
only i'm the expected and natural ways,
Alix thought. Her daily letter from
Martin, her new prospects, not only
increased her Importance In the other
girls eyes, but innocently inflated her
own self-confidence. She had prom