Show noel thornton feeling very much a H martyr to duty walked up the old elm lined street in the gray gloom of the winter afternoon he wondered irritably if there was any corner of the globe where the family had no connections or friends tor him to brunt frunt up and while you are in elmouth exmouth bis mother had said be sure and call on miss emmelime you know she was one of your grandfather s stanch k cst friends it as she jou 1 f ber who wrote those charming qua trains at the timp of 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 reluctantly quitted the other angi were starting a game of pitch instead of enjoying that game with them as by all the laws and the prophets he should have been doing he was tramping up this endless street to call on a laos of much intellect and man years the fact that miss emmeline had been a friend of hs philosopher grand father noel termed his ancestor A brainy old boy but way beyond him filled him with dismal forebodings he fancied himself endeavoring to if beep pace with miss s con and groaned inwardly nev Es erth eless he walked briskly on and presently stopped before a huge old f colonial house on whose polished door f plate shone the name calvert he mounted the steps and gave sev eral resounding blows with the brass hoocker to the portly colored woman who answered his ammons he handed his card and was shown into what evi dently was the reception room it was huge and dim but furnished and with quiet taste A alre sputtered cheerfully on the broad hearth and by the windows were azalia bushes in full bloom on fief the wall he saw a large oil painting of rt his intellectual grandfather he had risen and was standing before this when a soft voice said S and this is mr noel thornton I 1 m charmed to meet you noel turned there was a faint smell of lavender in the room in the doorway stood miss Emi neline it seemed to him that some beauty of several decades ago had come sud denly to life from some old canvas and had walked stra from the frame to him hei fass of green silk was cut in 1 the absurd fashion of the early fifties her fresh plump hands were halt hid den in black mitts her gray hair adde strange little corkscrew curls about her temples but her face bore no trace of wrin hies her round cheeks were touched with delicate color her lips ere full and red and her dark eyes sparkled like a girl s f good heavens noel was thinking to himself ind the woman is he took her extended hand and bowed low miss calvert was all be was able to murmur f its u good of you to come she in the gruy gloom of a w anter after noon said wont you down molly will bling us tea ao 10 a moment they talked of commonplace things the weather the town the new bridge he was helping to build miss emmeline showed a lively interest in things modern and as the talk went on noel forgot his misgivings and embarrassments embarrass ments when the tea came in bliss emme line had just finished a capital golf anecdote and they were laughing together like a gay young couple noel glanced at his grandfather s portrait old boy he said to I 1 nover envied you until now when noel it was not un til he had received miss emmeline s to call again tho 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 76 why dont they raise girls like that nowa he burst out noel called again on miss emmelene Emmel lne the next thursday and the next at ter that he went often whether it was her soft vibrant voice her gentle eyes or her girlish manner that drew ner to him he could not say there was some exquisite indefinable charm about her and beyond that point he did not attempt analysis one bleak afternoon as he was about to take his departure they were drew her hand away rather abruptly standing together in the hall noel suddenly seized her hand and pressed it to his lips some day he said quietly and firmi I 1 shall find her and she will be like vou miss drew away her band rather abruptly noel looked up to find her blushing furiously she mur aured something indistinctly about hoping he would find her and left him there alone noel went out ex puzzled that night he wrote his mother a long letter setting forth the charms of miss emmeline the face of a girl and the mind of a sage was among the things he wrote two days later he received an an letter from his mother I 1 can t understand about miss em kellne she wrote she Is here in new york and the house is in charge of her grandniece noel waited impatiently in the reception room presently he heard the swish of silk and mss emmeline came in he tool her hand and held it firmly I 1 ve found her he said abruptly the one ike you f she looked achim narrowly will you marry mea he asked quietly her eyes opened wide in amaze ment y my dear apy at my age pardon me said noel your wig has slipped back it was a choice bit of fiction but it worked beautifully she gave a little cry of dismay and sank into a chair oh she said almost in tears I 1 was masquerading in these clothes the first day you came and well it was an awful temptation noel came over to the chair and took one of the hands in his will you marry mea he felt the little hand t ahten about his own aull never tell aunt emmeline she whispered boston globe |