The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1943-01-22

didn't last long, Tor Amelia tainted,
Y ill--and the baby was born within
ter's secret must be kept now, Of
all times, when Fred's wife, who
wasn't any too strong, was expect
ing her own baby any day.
"But poor little Lottie couldn't
bear it. One night she suddenly
appeared in my brothers room, as
he was reading to his wife, and ac-
cused him of having ruined her
life!''
IF l was the baby" Cherry said,
hardly breathing. II must have
been born just about that time, too"
"You were only few days old.
Your mother, poor Lottie, was per-
haps weak and feverish, hardly
knowing what she was doing"
"But she couldn't have come to
the house. She'd have been too
weak"
'She may have been in the house
with Emma. ] have always sus-
pected that Emma was there and
the baby was born there. However
it was, she rushed into Amelia's
room. Amelia had lost all control of
herself; she was sobbing bitter
y :"
ibid she say anything about the
baby?"
mo. Amelia never knew about the
baby.
"Of course I don't know what
she said," the Judge admitted
with a faint fr0wn. ''But what
ever she said, it didn't last long,
for Amelia tainted, and when
she came to she was very ill.
and the baby was born within
the hour
Emma came hurrying down and
took Lottie away, and few days
later Emma left my mother, and
she and Lottie went to live some
where in the country.
Erred was killed in a motor
smash a few years later, and Anne
liza didn't survive long. My mother
took charge of Amy, and the money
my brother left for you / admin
istered as best / could. Emma had
sent her sister to this school of Saint
Dorothea's for a while, when she
was little but Lottie hated it and
came back. "A school of charac-
ter" as the catalogue says, and she
wanted you sent there"
Cherry was standing; she came
over to his chair, bent over him
swiftly, and he felt her warm lips
against his forehead.
II love you! There's never any
trouble for anyone where you are!"
she said, and was gone.
''Oh, the relief, Kellyl" she wrote
him from camp. 'The relief of do
ing something you simply don't
want to do, and having it over, and
your soul as clear as a bell!
when will you see me? When col.
lege opens. For three deliclo
weeks before that, as soon as we
close camp, Rebecca and ! and
darling girl named Lucie Fargo are
going on wild cruise. Up to Vic
toria-we'll actually be out Of Amer
lea, imagine!--and on the way home
we're going to stay with Lucle's
grandmother, who has a country ho-
tel. That's up in Mendocino Coun-
ty, not far from Aunt Emma's
place; it's only about thirty miles.
So I've written Aunt Emma that
I'm coming over to see her."
And she signed it "Your devoted
and obedient Marchioness."
But despite high spirits she dread
ed the visit to Emma, and was
glad that it was to be put off until
the end Of the holiday.
In due time she and Rebecca and
Lucie drove along the ocean coast,
and into high mountains, and
through valleys where great rivers
raced. It was all glorious and rest
full and exciting.
When they were back in California
with the great mountains and the
days Of laughter and change and
adventure behind them, Cherry felt
herself older and wiser. On a GER
tain sober September afternoon she
presented herself at the door of EN-
mas cabin with nothing more than
a little shyness in her manner.
Emma lived in a lumber country.
Cherry, for her drive of thirty miles,
had borrowed the car, leaving the
other girls with Lucie's grand
mother.
Emma had been lying on the
couch, evidently mapping; she well
coined Cherry pleasantly enough,
but without an embrace, and put the
girl into chair at the hearth while
she started q fire and. lighted one
dim kerosene lamp.