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Show "I?" She shook her head. "No, I was never married." "Not married?""No," she answered quietly, smoothing her dress, and still smiling gently.That proved to be the biggest surprise that the old gentleman had met with yet. He went round the house looking at the furniture and the wall paper, wondering how it was that the little woman with her gentle manners and pleasant face had never married. It was easy to explain why he had never married,-he had never thought of it!-but she? He couldn't understand. Then one day he stumbled across an old album under a pile of books which turned to the faded picture of a curly-haired youth, and opposite one of a girl with the same soft hair that he knew over the forehead, only brown; and he thought he understood. He closed the album and set it far down again under the other out of sight. He followed the little lady about with his eyes often, after that, wondering if "he" had died. Then he forgot to wonder at that; he wondered instead at her sweet voice, at the eyes that were still so clear; at the grey hair that lay in such a peaceful way over her forehead.At length he made his last discovery. But he did not come to her in great excitement this time. He found her upon the porch step with a white shawl thrown over her shoulders, and sat down beside her rather stiffly and mopped his brow with his silk handkerchief."Dear me, how time does fly," he remarked. "It's a twelvemonth since I knocked on this door first. Do you remember how you weren't going to let me in?"They both laughed."You said this wasn't a boarding house, and I said,- 'Then why Hiiggins,'"-he broke off with a start and turned to her. "Huggins House,-yes, why Huggins House?" he asked with new tone in his voice.His companion turned, too, and laughed shyly. "Well, you see, it was this way. Mary,-she was going to get married,-she suggested it,-and I had been going to keep boarders for some time, anyway, and of course it would be pleasant to have only young, well behaved married people around instead of dear knows how many noisy children and cross aunts. So I got the house, and Mary got the young people,-who were glad enough of an out-of-the-way place;-and the name.""-And the turtle dove?"She nodded,-"And the turtle dove."The old gentleman mopped his forehead again. "And so that was how I nearly didn't happen to get in. Dear me, how fortunate,-and yet what a pity to spoil the plan! Huggins, -Muggins,-it was a coincidence! Your name wasn't Huggins after all, to be sure, but it might-be-Muggins:" He leaned over, and taking the hand that lay in the soft folds of the shawl, looked questioningly in her face.And the answer that lay in her clear, brown eyes was his last discovery.Alta Rawlins, '08.177 |
