The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-12-18

streets, but was driven back to the club by the chill drizzle which sud denly began to descend.
 He sat down in a chair near a window that had been his favorite. Settled there, he remembered the position of a nearby bell, just under the window curtain. Yes, there it was. He rang, and a waiter came-a round, pink-faced, John Bullish waiter, with little white tufts on each cheek. Ayling ordered a whisky and when pres ently the waiter brought it Ayling asked how long he had been in the service of the club.
 ''Thirty-fve years, sir"
 AyIing looked at the old man in aStoniShment. Do you reimember me?' he asked.
 The old waiter, schoo1ed to re- member at first glance if he remem- bered at all, looked afresh at Ayling- T see so many faces, sir-I couldn't just at the moment Say- And I suppose" said Ayling, | you've brought me whisky-and soda here. to this very chair, no end of times. Whats your name?" "Chedsey, sir
 Seems familiar" He shook his head. You don't recall a MT. Ayling-twenty-f five or thirty years ago?''
 "Ayling, sir? I recall there was a member of that name. You're not MT. Ayling, sir?"
 We're not very fattering, either of us, it seems. But then, privilege of the aged, I suppose" Beg pardon, sir. I'm sorry-1 ought to remember you" Were wearing masks. Chedsey, you and I.''
 You're right, sir, I'm afraid They regarded each other, those two, Chedsey, rotund and pink, looking down upon Ayling, long and lean, with fine wrinkles about his eyes, and hair considerably grayed,
 wondering, both of them, why names should be so much more en- during than they themselves had been.
 It was not until Aylfng had be- gun to ask Chedsey for news of old friends, and chanced almost at once to mention Lonsdale, that both he and the old waiter exclaimed in the
 same breath, Major Lonsdale!" as if the Majors name had been a key to open the doors of both their mem l ories.
 And you're young Mir Dick Ayling! I remember you perfectly nowi" Chedsey beamed. How could he have failed to remember any one of those gay young friends of the majors?
 And where" asked AyIing, 'fs | the major now?"
 Major Lonsdale, sir-has been gone seven years. Hadn't you heard?''
 Lonsdale gone! Lonsdale dead!
 Lonsdale had begun life so bril-
 liantly. Ayling did feel left over and old
 What happened ?" he asked. and Chedsey, glad to talk of the major, told how he had left the club to be Major Lonsdale's name. just after he came back from the Boer War. How things hadn't seemed to 20 well with the major after that: he lost money-just how, Chedsey didn't say, but gave one to under stand that 1t was a misfortune be- yond the majors control. In the end he was forced to give 1ID his house, and Chedsey came back to the club. A few years later the major was taken with pneumonia. quite suddenly, and died. Did Mir, Aying know Major Lonsdale's wife?
 "Yes." said Ayling. What be- came of Mrs. Lonsdale?' Here in London, sir" Wasn't there." asked Ayfins. "a
 child, a little girl?'' ~Ah, Miss Peggy. sir!" It was
 plain that Miss Peggy was one of Chedsey's enthusiasms. A young | lady now and soon to be
 married to a fine young gentleman I of one of the best Scotch families She'll have title some day Picture in the Sketch recently l perhaps he could find it for MT. | Ayling
 Never mind" said Ayling. who not thinking of Miss Peggy at all, | but of her parents. young Major ! Lonsdale. and his pretty wife-he remembered her as a bride-Bessie the major had called her-a grace full young creature with brown hair and brown-flecked eyes, already at that age a charming hostess in the ! fine old house Harry Lonsda1e had | inherited rom hlS 1aUher. They are living in Cambridge Ter
 race" Chedsey was saying. Would
 MT. Ayling like the address 2" Ayling wrote down the address l Chedsey gave him. and put it away in his pocket, with no more definite idea than that some day, if oppor- i tunity offered, he might look her up, | for his old friends sake. 1 He began to inquire about other
 men-Carrington, Farnsby, Blake. 1 Dead. all three of them-Farnsby only last spring. Was it some fate | that pursued his particular friends But those men had all. he. reflected.
 been older than he. And yet, he
 recalled the words of his doctor: l "A mans as old as his arteries. 1 You've been too long out here. Be i sensible, Ayling- Go home
 take it easy-rest. You'll have a 1 long time yet. - Just a week later, to the day, | Ayling stepped into a telephone
 booth. looked 9p Mrs. Lonsdale's s
 number. and telephoned. He had
 not counted upon loneliness
 
 1 At forty five Bessie Lonsdale had encountered one of those universal
 experiences which invariably give
 US, as individuals. so strong a sense