Part 32 (1/2)

I could see that Jake's doubtful compliment was not exactly relished by the lady Nevertheless, she sht still have been so standing had not I pulled him to earth by the sleeve, three steps at a time

CHAPTER XV

”Music Hath Charms--”

He left me at the wharf without a word I went into the house, threw off ed in the luxury of a bath Not a salt-water apology for one,--a real, live, remove-the-dirt, soapy, hot-water bath;--and it did ood both mentally and bodily

I dressed myself in clean, fresh linen, donned my breeches, a pair of hand-knitted, old-country, heather hose and a pair of white canvas shoes I shaved and brushed e days, I had considered its le

The re was e of body-weariness where a book and a sels from heaven I had the books,--lots of the from the hooks on the front veranda,--so, what care had I?

I chose a voluh,--the only articulate sign of an unutterable content,--I stretched myself in the hanedinfluences

I had lain thus for perhaps an hour, when a shadow intervened between the page I was reading and the glare of the sun

It was Miss Grant

She had come by the back path and, in her noiseless rubber shoes, I had not heard her

I sprang out of the ha from the hook and threw the canvas aside to lorious loveliness and contagious health She did not speak for a moment, but her eyes took me in froe that the figure I presented was decidedly lad, for I knew, even with my small acquaintance with the opposite sex, that the woman is not alive who does not prefer to see a man clean, tidy and neat

I pushed the store doors open and followed her in

Again, that bewitching little uplifting of the eyebrows; again the alluring relaxation of her full lips; silent ways, apparently, of expressing her pleasure The appearance of my store, on this occasion, met with her approval

She laid aside her sunshade and handed roceries which she required; not all, but most of which, I was able to fill

”Make up the bill,--please I wish to pay it now I shall not wait until you oods If not tooto the soft cadences of her voice, when she stopped

She was leaning lightly with her elbow on the counter I was on the inner side, bending over my order book

When her voice stopped, I felt that she was looking at the top of my head I raised my face suddenly and, to her, unexpectedly For the first tiht, as, like a flash, I sawwith my old chum, Tom Tanner; his mother beside us, with her arms round our shoulders; and I remembered the flippant conversation we had at that tiolden-brown, lighter in colour than her hair, yet of wondrous depth and very attractive; inexpressibly attractive

I averted h for her to miss the admiration I had so openly shown

She picked up a tin froon is at your service, htly

”Thank you!” she answered in relief