The Vehement Flame

el as the grave: the coals thereof are coal

OF SOLOMO

d lovelier, and more absurd, than a boy'

river and sifting through the cream-white blossoms of the locust which reared its sheltering branches over their heads; the joy of mating insects and birds, of the whole exulting, creating universe!-the unselfconscious, irresponsible, wholly bea

ut his watch a

d," he said, "exactl

elieve it!

ose I shall feel after fifty-four years of it?" He flung an arm about her waist, a

air, silently. At which he sat up an

ou? You said 'No' six times. You certainly did behave very

I behaved very badl

shed it against his mouth. "I wish," he said, very low, "I almost wish I could die, now, here! At your feet. It seems as if I couldn't live, I am so-" He stopped. So-what? Words are ri

just put her hand in his. Suddenly she began to sing; there

dewy locks, w

ar windows of t

yes upon our

oir hails thy ap

d at her; for a compelling instant his eyes dredged the depths of hers, so that

f grass and began to braid them into a ring. "Lord!" he said, and his voice was suddenly startled; "what a darned little thing can throw the switches for a man! Because I didn't get by in Math. D and Ec 2, and had to crawl out to Mercer to cram with old Bradley-I met you! Eleanor! Isn't it wonderful? A little thing like that-just falling down in mathematics-changed my whole life?" The wild gayety in his eyes sobered. "I happened to come to Mercer-and, you are my wife." His fingers, ho

sm

nd let

umed garments

nd evening

rning on his face, he kissed the grass, earth's "perf

hink of Mrs. Newbolt," he said, "I could commit murde

ed, simply; "only, she never understood me-Maurice!

he pushed the ant aside with a clover blossom. Her anxious gentleness made him la

! You might as well expect a high-temp

ice, do you suppose she's got my letter by thi

Nothing can s

eriencing at that very moment, while reading Eleanor's letter announ

wn grass, with the warm fragrance of dropping locust blossoms infolding them, and in their ears the endless murmur of the rive

, myself-on his account," Maurice said, with the serious and amiable condescension of youth. "I hated to jar him. But-gosh! I'd have flunked A B C's, for this. Nelly, I tell you heaven hasn't got anything on this! As for Uncle Henry, I'll write him to-morrow that I had to get m

a goose. Then she took the little grass ring from her finger and slipped it into

She's a peach. And

s Skee

g, when she was seven, that she was going to marry me when she grew up! But

" she confessed; "they w

nuisance to Uncle Henry," he said, ruefully; "always doing fool things, you know,-I mean when I was

t will he call-" Sh

'wild flight in a

ssed) over his lips. Then she said that she remembered Mr. Hought

ears were also increasing did not occur to him; and no wonder, for, compared to people like Mr. and Mrs. Houghton, Eleanor was young enough!-only thirty-nine. It was back in the 'nineties that she had met her husband's guardian, who, in those days, had been the owner of a cotton mill in Mercer, but who now, instead of making money, cultivated potatoes (and tried to paint). Eleanor knew the

aurice said. "It i

Indeed, her sky terrier, Bingo, and her laundress, Mrs. O'Brien, to whose crippled baby grandson she was endlessly kind, knew her better than any of the people among whom she lived. When Maurice Curtis, cramming in Mercer because Destiny had broken his tutor's leg there, and presenting (with the bored reluctance of a boy) a letter of introduction from his guardian to Mrs. Newbolt-when Maurice met Mrs. Newbolt's niece, something happened. Perhaps because he felt her starved longing for personal happiness, or perhaps her obvious pleasure in listening, silently, to his eager talk, touched his young vanity; whatever the reason was, the boy was fascinated by her. He had ("cussing," as he had expressed it to himself) accepted an invitation to dine with the "ancient dame" (again his phrase!)-and behold the reward of merit:-the niece!-a gentle, handsome woman, whose age never struck him, probably because her mind was as immature as his own. Before dinner was over Eleanor's silence-silence is very moving to youth, for who knows what it hides?-and her deep, still eyes, lured him like a mystery. Then,

of positive suffering, which made him look as old as Eleanor, who, dazed by the first very exciting thing that had ever happened to her,-the experience of being adored (and adored by a boy, which is a heady thi

you alone! You are about as capable as a baby. That was a great phrase of your dear uncle Thomas's-'capable as a baby,' I'm perfectly sure the p

alone"; she might get married! But she was silent; she never knew what to say when assaile

in the midst of his anger, he recognized his opportunity: "The hell-cat has done me a good turn, I do bel

arry me," he told her; "that's all there is to it." He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a marriage license. "I'll cal

he sheer, beautiful, impertinence

He rose.... "Better leave a letter for your aunt. I'll be here at five minutes to ten. Be ready!" He paused

the Great Adventure! When he commanded,

n a car and ridden through Mercer's dingy outskirts to the end of the route in M

and banging over switches, Eleanor said, "I've come o

, that's over! No more

ed. "I'll miss my lit

ver; there they sat down under the locust, and he kissed her, quietly; then, for a while, still dumb with the wond

minutes," he

nned for the endless futu

e-let's see: nineteen, plus fifty, makes sixty-nine. He did not go farther with his mental arithmetic, and say thirty

olden years? "You know, long before that t

sum in addition which he had not essayed in his own mind, became unimportant in hers. What difference did the twenty severing years make, after all?

o you think you can love a s

years!-but you

ie says I'm a dummy, because I don't talk very much

re, the better I like it. A man," said Maurice, "likes to feel that he protects his-his wife." He paused and repeated the glowing word ... "his wife!" For a moment he could not go on with their careless talk; then he was practical again. That word "protect" was too robust for sentimentality.

Mau

. Well, I'm glad I haven't any near relations to get on their ear, and try and mind my business for me. Of course," he ruminated, "Bradley will kick like a steer, when I tell him he's bounced! But that will be

ork?" She had never asked him about money; she had plunged i

t I can't touch it till I'm twenty-five-worse luck! Father had theories about a fellow being kept down to brass tacks and earning his living, before he inherited money another man had earned-that's the way he put

of my own," she said;

ut his hand and touched her hair-black, and very so

t about money,"

Angels don't thi

e sun and wind and moving shadows, and the river-flowing-flowing-herald