The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-12-21

Once he said in his perfect French, Il
must ask your permission to go away. l
have several matters of business to attend
to-"
For swift moment, SO real had the voice
become to her, she felt strange. No, he
couldn't go-she couldn't spare him! And
then she laughed at her own foolish fancy
and said right back to him in the merrlest
little way:
"You frightened me- I thought for the
moment that you were really going.
The days that followed were strangely
happy ones for Amelie, and II her he
seemed to flow on in its usual currents, II
was to her only the surface flow. More
real, more vital more human than anything
else now was the voice of her French pro-
fessor. In the daytime she welcomed OPP
portunities to slip to the closet shelf, touch
the tiny lever and hear again the words
which even now meant so much to her.
In more ways than one she had been Civ
en- to understand that the neighbors were
waiting for her to tell them what that box
had contained. Ordinarily such gossip would
have disturbed her, but now it seemed of
little moment. There was something so per-
sonal, so sacred to her about the French pro-
fessor that she knew she could never share
him with anyone.
The Trents-her fathers people-had
lived in and about Merryville for genera
tons, but Amelie had been transplanted
from Louisiana where she had been born of
French mother now nearly 80 years ago.
Like bright, beautiful dream those days of
her childhood seemed, and indeed they nd
been short enough, for when she was still
a small child, her mother died and her life
for a long stretch of years afterward was
spent in boarding school.
Her father was serious man who had
. lost his grip on things. When he married
her mother he was many years her senior
and business reverses and sorrows had al
ready taken the Zest out of his life. Once in
a WHILE when Amelie at school, he
came to see her, and occasionally, in vaca-
ton time, he had taken her to Merryville
to see her aunt, Mary Trent, his only sister.
When the teachers sent for her and told
her that her father was dead, she remem-
bered feeling numb and helpless and strange,
but not deeply grieved. Things were some
what clouded for her about that time and
she never knew exactly what happened ex-
cept that Aunt Mary had furnished the
money for the remainder of her years at
school.
On her last day at school the principal
placed in her hand a check from her Aunt
Mary, with letter. The lady wrote that
this would help her until she could get a
position to teach, and that if she really
needed more she could let her know. And
there was a postscript which said mat times
were hard in Kentucky and crops had not
been good The principal then handed her
another letter, which she read mechanically.
The writer stated that a teacher was needed
for a rural school. The principal had
recommended her, and strongly advised her
to go, since this was really the only thing
she could do. There to be a summer
session which would mean immediate EN-
ployment, and TO this she was sentenced for
five ,years-five dull, uneventful years.
Then chance did deal the cards and help
her out. She found herself possessed of the
old homestead in Kentucky where her
father had been born. This came to her
through the death of Aunt Mary, and it was
her wish that her niece should come to
Kentucky to live.
She positively made up her mind after
Aunt Mary's affairs had been settled that
she would not live in that big, lonely, dismal
old Trent home, in its setting of mournful
cedars. She overruled Mr.. Cartwright her
business adviser and administrator of her
aunt's estate, and she built coy little
home to suit her own fancy on part of the
spacious lot adjoining the big house, which
was easily rented
After the house was completed, Amelie
went back to her Louisiana home, and from
among relatives and friends, here and there,
she gathered what was left of her mother S
furniture and pictures, and even some of
her treasured trinkets. Also she found
Aunt Narcisse, one of the old servants, who
consented to return with her to Kentucky.
For a year or two she was too much oc-
cupied to analyze, too busy to realize the