Show BUND BLIND EYES by DORA I 1 0 1131 1921 by mcclure newspaper syndicate it often happens with drink A man who lias has left intoxicants strictly alone la in youth develops a weakness for them late in life that man comes a harder cropper than one who has early set loot foot 11 in tale UK bibulous way so it was with niles miles grey crey the old lover as they call him now in pleasant V valley rey but jut it was no craving for strong waters that waited till past his middle years before assailing niles it was a longing for romantic love the township of pleasant valley embraces a lake one shore of it acts ot vs a boundary tor for the v village ilage of the other Is sweetly wooded in front ot of a grassy plateau s and nd on the plateau sits an old brown or farmhouse untenanted hinted for live five years nt at the beginning of this story Niles grey was an unnoticeable man who for many years jears hall had kept a small hardware shop la in a stunted city and lived in the little room it at the rear ile he remembered very little about his parents but an an aunt nt had dinned dinnee into him the tact fact that they had died lu in destitution having tailed to save in easy times niles purpose was that this should not happen to him so the little shop and the little back room saw niles hair turn from dusty b brown rown to dusty gray and his body grow perceptibly less like a russet apple after after a cellared winter Nin ter the while ills his bank account grew greater niles ambition had been to retire at fifty with enough saved to live on comfortably for the rest ot of his life like most men with the he aspiration he be overplayed ills his limit and it took the words of an outdoors preacher which reached ills ears ns as he stood stood 0 on n the doorstep one evening to bring flu sharply aply I 1 to his consciousness that oldest ot of truths that man Is born bom to die and verily his years arel are abree score years and ten and if but nile m knew no reason why the it should apply a to himself go bo niles sold out oui his business and having always lived in a city hankered for the country thus in the course cf events shoved along a bit by an astute real estate agent niles grey came to live in the old brown farmhouse on the woods encircled plateau above lake pleasant niles alles had always kept house for himself and lie he continued to do so there was one conclusion at which niles thought always arrived how little he had bad to think about the many many days spent in his little shop had been uneventful enough the departure of one clerk and the hiring of another alone divwer them into periods many times he ran over the list and always he stopped when lie came to miss lamb why had she left it was not to be married 1 he be knew because niles had bad so BO little to think bout about he be learned to dream and the eligible single women of the village looking across the lake and seeing him sitting there in front of his house P pitted his lonely life tor for its emptiness niles thinking of the single women of the village but about what his life would have been like it lie he had married young anaf because now it could never be of course he be began to wish that it might have been that very evening lie he walked around to the Pleasant pleasantville ville post effice to mall mail a letter ile he arrived there ther ejust just as the mall was being distributed and the village news of the day discussed they were speaking of miss letty the towns dressmaker tor for twenty years the tragedy was that slie she could be the I 1 dressmaker no more slie she had cut out the doctors cifes new summer silk partly on the wrong side and had brolien broken down and confessed that she could never have discovered it herself miss bliss letty was in terrible distress for it meant the poor farm slie she had no relatives and there was waa no wily way for a blind woman to earn a living niles grey listened lie ile sat out late that night looking down at the lake early next rooming morning niles again set out tor for the village ile he insulted inquired tor for the dwelling place of miss letty knowing her by no other name A little woman opened the door lie was frustrated ted at knowing only her given name and by the delicacy 0 of f his errand lie ile stumbled in ill his rehearsed int introduction du tion so much that while lie he did notice her pale blue eyes were red as from recent weeping he did not realize that a sla singular sular agitation had come upon her at the sound of ills miss letty strove for the tone one of polite friendliness wont you cone come in mr grey slie she said how have you been all these years since I 1 left your employ but her voice trembled as she led the way to a cli chair all 1 and she forgot in her confusion that eliat i 1 longer wits slie she a good juige judge of ila she tripped over the chair niles caught miss letty its 8 slie she was falling and held her As her bel slight ligure leaned against jilin him for and lie he saw the quivering of her t liln lips niles knew anany things lings ti in an like a drowning dinall he knew tills this woman was miss lamb and ft vily liy she had left ills employ alv ilk knew that slie had cared fur for him fill all the lie years and still luied lie knew klew i lint hut lie he would lie to lift aal tell ell her hut lie had always auml too until e came to believe it blin himself self ali A knew that there mere would be no mor i ee ot of love tor for tho me time woul I 1 only to too short tor for the living |