illowy way, and her voice was lovely and cool
almost to slimness. "I am the bearer of so many gracious messages that
I am anxious to deliver them safely to you. Not six weeks ago I left
Alfred Bennett in Paris and really--really his greetings to you almost
amounted to steamer luggage. He came down to Cherbourg to see me off,
and almost the last thing he said to me was, 'Now, don't fail to see
Mrs. Carter as soon as you get to Hillsboro; and the more you see of her
the more you'll enjoy your visit to Mrs. Pollard.' Isn't he the most
delightful of men?" She asked me the question, but she had the most
wonderful way of seeming to be talking to everybody at one time, so
Mrs. Johnson got in the first answer.

"Delightful, nothing! But Al Bennett is a man of sense not to marry
any of the string of women I suppose he's got following him!" she said.
Miss Chester looked at her in a mild kind of wonder, but she went on
murdering Mr. Johnson's shirt-sleeve with the needle without noticing
the glance at all.

"Well, well, honey, I don't know about that," said Aunt Bettie as she
fanned and rocked her great, big, darling, fat self in the strong rocker
I always kept in the breezy angle of the porch for her. "Al is not old
enough to have proved himself entirely, and from what I hear--" she
paused with the big hearty smile that she always wears when she begins
to tease or match-make, and she does them both most of her time.

But at whom do you suppose she looked? Not me! Miss Chester! That was
cold tub number two for that day, and I didn't react as quickly as I
might, but when I did I was in the proper glow all over. When I revived
and saw the lovely pale blush on her face I felt like a cabbage-rose
beside a tea-bud. I was glad Aunt Adeline came out on the porch just
then so I could go in and tell Judy to bring out the iced tea and cakes.
When I came from the kitchen I stepped into my room and took out one of
Alfred's letters from the desk drawer and opened it at random, as you do
the Bible when you want to decide things, and put my finger down on a
line with my eyes shut This was what it was:

"--and all these years I have walked the world, blindfolded to its
loveliness with the blackness that came to me when I found that you--"

I didn't read any more, but shoved it back in a hurry and went on out on
the porch, comforted in a way, but feeling some more in sympathy with
Mrs Johnson than I had before Aunt Bettie and her guest f