The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1941-11-07
The Little Glass
House
y
By MARY WORTH
Mcclure Syndic ate-WNU Service

quarter mile OdCh iiOii
highway. at the end of fairly good
praveled road. Melissa Storm, It's
present owner, wished that It were
more accessible She loved 1.-THE
rambling old white clapboard house
that had been built by her great
grandfather, the signing pines that
sang her to sleep with the song OF
the sea on windy nights and that
winter and summer, gave their ricn
color TO her outlook of field ana
meadow. But now that she was In
possession she wanted very much TO
put the place TO use that would aug
ment the meager income her father
had left to her and her Invalid
mother
Melissa did not farm the big place.
She had sold off some of il to neigh
boring farms and estates. Some OF
il lay fallow One man worked
enough of it for their own needs
and 10 give little for the markets.
But with bad investments and not
very good managing on MellsSas
part and heavy expenses, there was
just about enough TO get along on.
Sometimes real money was missing.
Melissa thought out her plan In
the long winter evenings which she
spent so often alone-Maggie, the
one servant, doing in the kitchen
until an early bed time, Mrs. Storm
resting or sleeping on the couch In
the big, fire-warmed living room.
IL 70 mr.
her adjoining bed chamber. Differ
ent, these somber evenings, from
those of the winter before, when the
CHEEKY presence of her father and
brother-killed in the same accident
had made the big house alive. Or
from those evenings of the proceed
ing autumn when another presence
in the big house had made it para
disc to Melissa.
AS the days heightened MelisSa's
plan strengthened. She couldn't
make a roadside restaurant of Storm
Pines 1t wasn't on the highway
Moreover, her mothers health was
too precarioUs to risk any sort OF
noise or confusion.
But down by the highway there
was little modern cottage. 1t had
been built almost two years ago, but
had never been occupied. Melissa
had been engaged, then, to Jack
Ranleigh, from the city. Her father
had given them the property wherc,
along the highway, Jack had bus
the cottage They had planned to
use it for week-ends all the year
and for summer holidays.
Melissa had broken the engage
ment. Gossip-and jealouSy-had
made her think Jack was losing n
tereSt in her. Jack, too hurt to eX-
plain away quite harmless flirta-
ton with a pretty girl at dance,
had taken Melissa'S dismissal in ST.
lence And that was the end of the
future for the little glass house. 1t
stood empty and neglected.
Melissa had half hoped Jack would
come to her at the time of the
dreadful tragedy that took her ia
Their and brother from her. But she
had not heard from him. She had
not known that at the time he was
lying desperately i'll in Central
America of some obscure but deva-
stating fever, and that he had heard
nothing of her trouble.
Her plan, as it grew, amounted 10
this: She couldn't bring the highway
to Storm Pines, but she could 60 to
the highway She could open road
side tea house in the Little Glass
House. She would cast sentiment TO
the winds. Through an agent she
would rent the cottage. Her ia
Their had decided the property where
it stood to Jack. Then she would
hang out her sign-The Little Glass
House. And she, dressed in spot
less, crisp white linen, would make
sandwiches and WaffleS and salads
in the glass porch for every paSserby
to see She hoped that, seeing, many
of them would stop for lunch in
doors or out-she would have two ia
bleS above the fiower-dotted bank
that led down to the brook, and an
other under the signing pine.
One warm day in March she
walked down to the cottage. She
had never stopped there-when she
had to pass it she drove by as fast
as she could and still safely manipu-
late the sharp turn into the highway.
When she walked, she went by other
ways. =.
She turned in the white gate that
| gave on the graveled road, and
made her way around TO the glass
| porch One of the French windows
was open A deck chair was spread
inside the porch And on the deck
chair rested the long. thin figure of
young man. 1t was Jack, Of
| course. Melissa was Surer of that
before she saw him than after she
saw his pale face, his emaciated
hands 1t couldn't be anybody else.
She had hoped, half known, she
would find him there sometime. And
when he opened his tired eyes and
saw her standing there he, too, felt
:he inevitableness of her presence
1t didn't take long, in the warm
| March sunshine for them IN erase