Show W lab los V mos 67 noel thornton feeling very much a martyr to duty walked up the old elm lined treet in the gray gloom of the winter afternoon he ile wondered r d irritably it if there m was as any comer corner of the globe where the family had no connections or friends for him to hunt up and while ou are in exmouth elmouth Ex mouth hia him mother had said be sure and call on misa emmeline Emmell iio you know she was one of our grandfather a stanch cst friends it was she you remember who wrote those charming qua trains at the time of bis his death be sure you call on her noel A delay in forwarding girders had temporarily stopped work on the bridge and back at the hotel he had so reluctantly quitted the other engineers a ere starting a of pitch instead of enjoying that game with them as by all the laws and the prophets he should have been doing ho he was tramping up thia this endless street to call on a lady of much intellect and many years the fact that miss bliss emmeline Emmel lne bad been a friend of bis his philosopher grand father noel termed his ancestor A brainy old boy but way beyond him filled him with dismal forebodings lie fancied himself endeavoring to kep pace with mies bliss con and groaned inwardly nevertheless erth eless be he walked briskly on and presently stopped before a huge old colonial bouse house on whose whoso polished doorplate shone the name calvert lie ile mounted the steps and gave sev re era eral resounding blows with tho the brass knocker to the portly colored woman who answered his summons he handed his card and was shown into what evi dently was the reception room it was huge and dim but furnished modernly and with quiet taste A fire tend d cheerfully on the broad hearth and by the windows were aballa bushes in full bloom on the wall ho he saw a large oil painting of his intellectual grandfather he lie had and was standing before this when a soft voice said and this Is mr air noel thornton Tb ornton im charmed to meet you noel turned there was a faint 11 smell mell of lavender in the room in the doorway stood miss bliss emmeline Emmel lne it seemed to him that some beauty of ot several decade ago had bad come sud denly to life from some old canvas and bad had walked straight from the frame to him her dress of green bilk milk was cut in the absurd fashion of the early fifties lift les 16 I 1 I 1 if 11 Y 0 J t I 1 in the gray bloom gloom of a winter afternoon her fresh plump hands were halt half bid den in black in lutat her geay gray hair made strange little corkscrew aurli about her demples but her taw bareno tram 0 wrinkles her round checks were touched with delicate doll cato color her lips viere ere full an and d red and her dark apai failed pait led like a girl 11 good heavens he aveni noel aa was thinking to himself and tho the woman ie Is 76 I 1 he ile took her extended hand and bowd low miss al lag C r 1 I ertl was all he was able to mur murmur taur its so good of you to come she he enid said won t you sit down molly will bring us tea in a moment they talked of commonplace things tho the weather tho the town tie tle new now bridge lie was helping to build miss alts emmeline Emmel lne showed a lively interest in things modern and an the talk 0 t drew her hand away racher abruptly went on noel forgot his misgivings and when the tea came in miss bliss emmeline had just finished a capital golf anecdote and they were laughing together like a gay young couple noel glanced at his grandfathers portrait old doy boy he be said to himself I 1 nei or envied you until now when nod noel departed it waa was not until he had received miss bliss Era melinee permission to call again the following thursday he walked down the street in an entirely different mood from that which had possessed him earlier in the afternoon such eyes he repeated and why don 1 they raise girie girls liko like that now he burst on out noel called again on miss ailse emmeline the next thursday Thu and the next after atter that he went often whether it wua was her soft vibrant voice her gentle eyes or her girlish manner that drew her to him he amm not say there was some exquisite indefinable charm about her and beyond that point he did not attempt analysis one bidak afternoon as ho be was about to take his Ock departure arture they were standing together in the hall noel suddenly seized her band and pressed it to his lips somo some day he lie said quietly and fl firmly aly 1 I shall find her and the she will bo be like you mias miss emmeline amelino Er drew away her bard rather abruptly noel looked up to find her blushing furiously she murmured something indistinctly about hoping ho he would find her and left him there alane noel N oel went out ex trembly puzzled puzz ed that night he lie wrote his mothr a 8 long letter setting forth the charras of miss emmeline Kromel lne the face ot a girl and the mind of a sage was among the things he wrote two daya later lo 10 received an answering si letter from his mother I 1 can t understand about miss atlas em incline lne sho she wrote she Is hero here in new york and the hougo house Is in charge of her grandniece 0 0 0 0 0 noel waited impatiently in the reception room presently he beard the swish of allic and mis emmeline Km melino ram came in he ile took her band hand and held it firmly q t ve found her M he a belil tid abruptly the one like yn you jat a n A f she looked at him will you marry me met ho he aaker quietly her eyes tyes opened wide lu in amago merit ment my aly dear boy at nay my age 1 kv pardon me said noel your wig has slipped back it as a choice bit of fiction but it worked beautifully she ave aye a a tie ale cry 0 of dismay and sank into a chair oh ob aho she said almost in tears vas masquerading in these the first day ou on came and well it aa an awful temptation noel came over to the chair and took one of the bands bonds in his will you marry ine me lie ile felt the little hand tighten about bis his own you 11 never tell aunt she whisp trod and bloston globa |