Show tiny alcove alco ve was quite popular the weekly short story by GENEVRA COOK if ISS M 1 FARR ce lebrat na MISS cd ed her thirty eighth birthday by purchasing a shiny brass bruss pad lock for the lip new shiny black gate with curbed red lips set in the farm line of duty her soft appell ing brown eyes tense alth ft ath responsibility lity tr filie albed firmly a bogs 1 the room of the tile library down doun the dim hallway and brgan to mount the stairs leading to the quiet alcoe her tier cheeks usually as delicately pink ant an I 1 ahl c as apple blossoms in spring were flushed with excitement to a deep rose on her smooth mallte forehead fore heid appeared a very determined mined very competent frown froin bit hiss mattie blattle I 1 tarr arr librarian n nas as looking at the gate ll halfway alfay up the stairs it stood new and black block and ing blocking he the wal wa to flip ali dici cozy little alcove above aboe down these stairs for nearly four college generations hiss miss wattle parr farr had watched co couples liples come into each others eyes had watched HIM touch hands bonds alth ft ath a little catch of c ile br brodil otil ina fem them pass pars unconscious of her dis dig approving raze seeing nothing but each other toward the door silly what they coul I 1 see in an evening spent in the library sit ting in a tiny alcove lined with lith musty books the first two she had find watched come down from that solitude eighteen years agu had been tom U beiner eu er and ai aina no merton and last week neek the first beek ft cek of college this year when she had heard laughing and voices and had mounted th the e stairs quickly she had found little annette leaver now a fresh freshman nion sitting on the table teaching a new song to a tall senior with curly hair it was uns then that miss hattte grim dt termInation in her face had decked decided to put an end to the whole busina s and purchase the gate and now all that remained a is to lock 14 it and an end to foolishness and ad to eca esen worse than foolishness I 1 or as annette and her senior had come down don the stairs the hor horrified rIfled librarian had most certainly seen two shadows merge a breathless moment into one I 1 blasing hat ins snapped the padlock alth ith an fill indignant and click mattle mottle barr turned to find end herself looking into the gray eyes of I prof irot rot benver eaver understand ing ees they were with something twinkling in them as he said good wenlu een lu miss farr I 1 see you re giving cm em the gitel I 1 ell my only regret Is that I 1 didn dian t do it years ago its strange to ire what nhat they see in it sitting on a table or a folding chair sur rounded by those old bound N blumes of the annals of the american academy of arts and sciences or the psychological review they must be crazym crazy I 1 bliss mattle looked up at tit prof bany wraya fo r ia C 1114 III head bent ever so gently over her hers tom N scours ea ers older brother slim distinguished bachelor was looking down at her alth ft ath a strange new expression in his gray edek mattle looked avay a ay quickly con conscious of a slow surge of pink rising upon her cheeks often wondered just up there anyway he ald mid after a moment dodou do you could 1 I 1 I mean would you show it to me alth a caught breath miss ilal ilat tie unlocked the kate gate and they went up the stairs together it was as the same old alcove that miss mattle had bad rearranged and dusted and unwittingly chaperoned for the past eighteen years yet there was something different about it today there was an intimacy about the two folding chairs chair which faced each other across the little table there was something a lit ili tie mysterious and thrilling about the seclusion of it the there re was something breath taking about sit ting ling there talking about almost anything and find looking into the gray eyes ees of prof lil lilliam liim acner it was nearly an hour later that miss mattle mottle remembered that she ought to be at the file desk 1 lien ben she came to close the gate IN gillim be he had asked her to call him 11 ill lini as sho used to do in the d ilis 1 8 hen they had gone to school together before he went away tt I 1 t for her and gently snapped the lock at the foot of the they en countered annette leaver and th the senior curly hair auve 1 oure put up a gate I 1 r fried ried the senior with astonishment 11 hello ello uncle bill said annette why her voice rose in quick dia dis may the tile gates loc locked ketil the senior looked confidently at alica si atti e oa 01 aei farr vion front t you ghe us tie keyl ley V the habit of at i cred about miss Al matties attles lips though her e ees es were wide 1 nith ith a new V won on der 1 I in sorry 1 she began but just then in the dusk 0 of f the hall hallway vitty she felt williams hand brush hers hem oh yes said miss mattle 31 attle treal trem piously ulous ly ill III ghe glie you the key ill give you the whole gitel if annette and her happily Al i toward the alcove had joked backward toward the foot of the stairs they would most certainly haie hate seen two shii jows for a breathless breath lese moment into one I 1 I 1 copyright |