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Show 354 1\ :lUIIe bOUK In tbc llllloo~• Glib '!Rose anb Stiller it every day and every hour of my life. I asked where she was." "And 1," answered Madame, imperturably, "have told you. She is simply 'away.' " "Is she well? " "Yes." "Is she happy?' "Of course. Why not? Beauty, health, talent, sufficient income, love-what more can a woman desire? " "Aunt Francesca! Tell me, please. Where is Rose?" "When I was married," answered Madame, idly fingering an ivory paper knife, "I went to live in a little house in the woods." "Yes? Where is Rose?" "It was only a tiny place, but a brook sang in front of it, night and day." "Must have been pretty. Where did Rose go?" "It was very quiet there. It would have been a good place to work, if either of us had been musical, or anything of that sort." "Charming," replied Allison, absently. "It wasn't far from town, either. We could take a train at two o'clock, and reach Holly Springs a little after three. It was half a mile up the main road from the station, and, as we had no horse, we always walked." "Nice walk," said Allison, dejectedly. u I have never been back since-since I was <tbc bouse 1llllbere :lLolle 1illeb left alone. Sometimes I have thought my little house ought to have someone to look after it. A house gets lonely, too, with no one to care for it." "I suppose so. Is Rose coming back?" "I have often thought of the little Summer cottages, huddled together like frightened children, when the life and laughter had gone and Winter was swiftly approaching. How cold their walls must be and how empty the heart of a little house, when there is no fire there ! So like a woman, when love has gone out of her life." Allison sighed and began to sharpen his pencil. Madame observed that his hands were trembling. "I see," he said. "I don't deserve to know where she is, and Rose doesn't want me chasing after her. Never mind-( had it coming to me, I guess. What a hopeless idiot I 've been!" "Yes," agreed Madame, cordially. "Carlyle says that 'there is no other entirely fatal person.', Something in her tone gave him courage for another question. "Once for a11, Aunt Francesca, will you tell me where Rose is? .. "George Washington was a great man," Madame observed. "He never told a lie. If he had promised not to tell anything, he never told it." Then she added, with swift 355 |