The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding

fire must pale before the broad light of day, and her vestal-maiden fervour had

he stored away in her memory for future use, the information that he had lived several years in Spain and Mexico, and spoke Spanish like a native, that u

THE GATE, TO LOOK DOW

accomplished man of the world as he evidently was. All that day she pictured to herself at intervals how she should meet him and what she should say. It was a new experience for the haughty Princess who had always been

ers. Lloyd watched their approach from behind a leafy screen of lilac bushes. The gleam of a wild strawberry had lured her over there from the path, a few minutes before. Then the discover

e avenue, unknowing that a far prettier picture was hidden away a few yards from them, in full sound of their voices-a girl half lying in the grass, with June's own fres

two,'" she quoted in a whisper, c

olm and Alex and Ranald were all smooth-shaven. Maybe it was that same black moustache, with the gleam of white teeth and the flashing glance of his black eyes that gave him that dashing cavalier s

petuous he would ride rough-shod over anythin

ch for him as Gay expects for I'll simply not stand his putting on any of his lordly ways with me." Gathering

arm chair on the white pillared porch, old Colonel Lloyd reached out to the wick

"It looks like young Walton on the roan, bu

. Slowly his gaze swept the landscape from side to side, till it rested on Ll

t coolly feeding his choicest strawberries to an elfish looking dog. Time had gone so fast since his imperious little grand-daughter had come into his life to fill it with new interests and deeper meaning. Yes, it certainly seemed no longer ago than yesterday that she was tyrannizing over him in her adorable baby fashion, making an abject slave

d beside his chair to give him a soft pat on the chee

ith young Walton," he responded.

ke his acquaintance. There's to be anothah housewahming, especially for him. Kitty and Ranald are engineering it. They've invited all the young people in the neighbourhood-sawt of a surprise y

ce his Daddy died. He just grinds along in that hardware store all day, and is into his law books as soon as he gets home. He's getting to be an old man before his time. I'm glad your little friend Gay is h

"Why grandfathah! I nevah dreamed

arks on a road you've travelled. But why," he said suddenly in a changed tone, "if I may be so bold as to ask, why is this yo

village with nothing doing, but into a lovely social whirl instead. They want

l "humph!" checked her. For some unaccountable reason the old Colonel seemed to have taken a dislike to this stranger, and s

he takes such violent prejudices that the least thing 'adds fuel t

news and am so kind and polite as to ask you to go to the pahty with us. It's dreadful to have s

he was twisting his white moustache, and braiding his Napoleon-like goatee into a funny little tail, she was thinking about the evening, and the indifferent air with which she intended to meet Leland Harcourt. She would have to be indifferent, and oblivious of his existence as far as she could politely, because Gay had told him that she

sently. Owing to some mistake in checking their baggage in Washington, Lloyd's trunks had bee

er of a room was in confusion. Her Commencement gown lay on the bed like an armful of thistledown, with her gloves and lace fan beside it. On the mantel stood the little white slippers in which she had tripped across the rostrum at Warwick Hall to receive her diploma from Madam Chartley's hands. Now

ishment" (she couldn't understand why it should be called Commencement), had been the event of her life; and when she

Lloyd, entering the room, looked around to see who her audience could be. At the sound of Ll

these yeah school books, honey,

p my French and German all next wintah, even if I am a débutante. Don't you remembah what Madam Chartley said in her lovely f

usy thinkin' of Becky Potah in her black silk dress that ole Cun'l give me for the grand occasion

the room, she felt as if she were assisting at the last sad rites of something very dear; for each page was eloquent with happy memories of her last year at school. Every scrib

at had once been a never failing source of delight. She could remember the time (and not so very long ago, either) when it had seemed impossible that she could out-grow them. And now as she trailed down stair

t at her desk. There was so much that she wanted to talk to her about. One of the things she had looked forward to most eagerly in her home-coming was the long, sisterl

fact that it should rise between them as it had done lately. Even when Betty was not shut up in her room actually at work, her thoughts seemed to be on it. She was living in a world of her own creating, more interested in the characters of her fancy than those who sat

Betty's face would have banished every feeling of impatience or resentment, and sent her qu

hand, before adding the words, The End. She wrote them slowly, reverently almost, and then realizing that the ambition of her life had been accomplished, looked up with an expressio

e, that was as still as a tomb, save for the buzzing of a wasp at the open window through which she had climbed. Again she opened the little red book-case above the back pew, that held the remnants of a scattered S

to call her back to that starting place. Sitting there in happy reverie, she wished that she could make a pilgrimage back to the little church. She would like to slip down its narrow aisle just when the afternoon

reaching out for the last volume of the white and gold series that chronicled her good times,

to publish anything in my teens. The world looks very different to me now at twenty. I have outgrown my early opinions and ideals with my short dresses, just as Mrs. Walton said we would. Now the critics can say 'Thou waitedst till thy woman's fingers wrought the best that lay withi

usands of libraries, but none of them ever brought again that keen inward thrill, that wave of intense happiness which surged through her warm and sweet, as she sat looking down on that f

even in her most intense moments. Save for the brilliant colour in her cheeks and the unusual light in her eyes there was

one hand and clicking two spoons together like castanets, she sprang from her chair and rushed aro

ad done such an amazing thing as to write a book, I'd have slidden down the ban'ista

that it's done I'll confess that I've been jealous of that old book evah since I came home, and I'm mighty glad it's out of the way. Now you'll hav

ed for the gaieties at the Cabin, as if it were her own entertainment, pleased that this red-letter occasion of her life should be marked by

the Cabin. Lloyd who was not quite ready, leaned over the banister in the upper hall for a glimpse of her old playmate, intending to call down some word

he asked herself defiantly. He was still the same old Rob, even if he had grown stern and grave looking. She leaned over again, but this time it was the sight of Betty that stopped her. She had never seen her

ing under the hall light. Then she saw that Rob was just as much impressed with Bet

w well Betty would fit into the establishment over at Oaklea. What a dear daughter she would make to Mrs. Moore, and what a joy she would be to the old Jud

d changing. She had put on a pale green dimity that she liked because it was simple

nothing but white could hold its own when brought in contact with Betty's gown. That pale e

tations," she thought, "so whi

t, fluffiest white organdy. Clasping the little necklace of Roman pearls around her throat, and catching up her lace fan, she swept up to the mirror for a

ace after we get to the Cabin, for if there should be any possibility of their beginning to care for eac

she wished to drop the friendly familiarity of their school days, and meet him on the footing of a recent acquaintance. He had been looking forward all year to her home-coming, and now it gave him a vague sense

d more beautiful, more the fair unattainable Princess, than she was in her meeting with Leland Harcourt. Gay wanted to pat her on the back, for she saw that she had made the very

ut the Valley and his pleasure in meeting its charming people, and then stood talking only long enough to make her feel that Gay was right in her estimate of him. He was entertaining, even fascinating in his manner, m

ay. Gay heralded her advent with that news. Lloyd could overhear little scraps of conversation that made her long to have a share in

t herself calmly and deliberately ignore

ent," she thought, "and he doesn't think it worth the effort

ted wisdom of her school-girl experiences she did not recognize that this worldly-wise young man was ignoring