goes and returns after many years."
There was a faint hint of proud sadness in Eudora's voice as she spokethe last two words.
"It has been many years," said Lawton, gravely, "and I wonder if it hasseemed so to you."
Eudora held her head proudly. "Time passes swiftly," said she, tritely.
"But sometimes it may seem long in the passing, however swift," saidLawton, "though I suppose it has not to you. You look just the same," headded, regarding her admiringly.
Eudora flushed a little. "I must be changed," she murmured.
"Not a bit. I would have known you anywhere. But I--"
"I knew you the minute you spoke."
"Did you?" he asked, eagerly. "I was afraid I had grown so stout youwould not remember me at all. Queer how a man will grow stout. I am notsuch a big eater, either, and I have worked hard, and--well, I mighthave been worse off, but I must say I have seen men who seemed to mehappier, though I have made the best of things. I always did despise aflunk. But you! I heard you had adopted a baby," he said, with a suddenglance at the blue and white bundle in the carriage, "and I thoughtyou were mighty sensible. When people grow old they want young peoplegrowing around them, staffs for old age, you know, and all that sort ofthing. Don't know but I should have adopted a boy myself if it hadn'tbeen for--"
The man stopped, and his face was pink. Eudora turned her face slightlyaway.
"By the way," said the man, in a suddenly hushed voice, "I suppose thekid you've got there is asleep. Wouldn't do to wake him?"
"I think I had better not," replied Eudora, in a hesitating voice. Shebegan to walk along, and Harry Lawton fell into step beside her.
"I suppose it isn't best to wake up babies; makes them cross, and theycry," he said. "Say, Eudora, is he much trouble?"
"Very little," replied Eudora, still in that strange voice.
"Doesn't keep you awake nights?"
"Oh no."
"Because if he does, I really think you should have a nurse. I don'tthink you ought to lose sleep taking care of him."
"I do not."
"Well, I was mighty glad when I heard you had adopted him. I supposeyou made sure about his parentage, where he hailed from and what sort ofpeople?"
"Oh yes." Eudora was very pale.
"That's right. Maybe some time you will tell me all about it. I amcoming over Thursday to have a look at the youngster. I have to go tothe city on business to-morrow and can't get back until Thursday. I wascoming over to-night to call on you, but I have a man coming to the innthis evening--he called me up on the telephone just now--one of the menwho have taken my place in the business; and as long as I have met youI will just walk along with you, and come Thursday. I suppose the babywon't be likely to wake up just yet, and when he does you'll have to gethis supper and put him to bed. Is that the way the rule goes?"
Eudora nodded in a shamed, speechless sort of way.
"All right. I'll come Thursday--but say, look here, Eudora. This is aquiet road, not a soul in sight, just like an outdoor room to ourselves.Why shouldn't I know now just as well as wait? Say, Eudora, you know howI used to feel about you. Well, it has lasted all these years. There hasnever been another woman I even cared to look at. You are alone, exceptfor that baby, and I am alone. Eudora--"
The man hesitated. His flushed face had paled. Eudora paced silently andwaveringly at his side.
"Eudora," the man went on, "you know you always used to run away fromme--never gave me a chance to really ask; and I thought you didn't care.But somehow I have wondered--perhaps because you never got married--ifyou didn't quite mean it, if you didn't quite know your own mind. You'llthink I'm a conceited ass, but I'm not a bad sort, Eudora. I would beas good to you as I know how, and--we could bring him up together." Hepointed to the carriage. "I have plenty of money. We could do anythingwe wanted to do for him, and we should not have to live alone. Say,Eudora, you may not think it's the thing for a man to own up to, but,hang it all! I'm alone, and I don't want to face the rest of my lifealone. Eudora, do you think you could make up your mind to marry me,after all?"
They had reached the turn in the road. Just beyond rose the stately pileof the old Yates mansion. Eudora stood still and gave one desperate lookat her lover. "I will let you know Thursday," she gasped. Then she wasgone, trundling the baby-carriage with incredible speed.
"But, Eudora--"
"I must go," she called back, faintly. The man stood staring after thehurrying figure with its swishing black skirts and its flying points ofrich India shawl, and he smiled happily and tenderly. That eveningat the inn his caller, a young fellow just married and beaming withhappiness, saw an answering beam in the older man's face. He broke offin the midst of a sentence and stared at him.
"Don't give me away until I tell you to, Ned," he said, "but I don'tknow but I am going to follow your example."
"My example?"
"Yes, going to get married."
The young man gasped. A look of surprise, of amusement, then of generoussympathy came over his face. He grasped Lawton's hand.
"Who is she?"
"Oh, a woman I wanted more than anything in the world when I was aboutyour age."
"Then she isn't young?"
"She is better than young."
"Well," agreed the young man, "being young and pretty is noteverything."
"Pretty!" said Harry Lawton, scornfully, "pretty! She is a greatbeauty."
"And not young?"
"She is a great beauty, and better than young, because time has nottouched her beauty, and you can see for yourself that it lasts."
The young man laughed. "Oh, well," he said, with a tender inflection, "Idare say that my Amy will look like that to me."
"If she doesn't you don't love her," said Lawton. "But my Eudora ISthat."
"That is a queer-sounding Greek name."
"She is Greek, like her name. Such beauty never grows old. She stands onher pedestal, and time only looks at her to love her."
"I thought you were a business man as hard as nails," said the youngman, wonderingly. Lawton laughed.
When Thursday came, Lawton, carefully dressed and carrying a longtissue-paper package, evidently of roses, approached the Yates house. Itwas late in the afternoon. There had been a warm day, and the trees wereclouds of green and more bushes had blossomed. Eudora had put on agreen silk dress of her youth. The revolving fashions had made it verypassable, and the fabric was as beautiful as ever.
When Lawton presented her with the roses she pinned one in the yellowedlace which draped her bodice and put the rest in a great china vase onthe table. The roses were very fragrant, and immediately the whole roomwas possessed by them.
A tiny, insistent cry came from a corner, and Lawton and Eudora turnedtoward it. There stood the old wooden cradle in which Eudora had beenrocked to sleep, but over the clumsy hood Eudora had tacked a fall ofrich old lace and a great bow of soft pink satin.
"He is waking up," said the man, in a hushed, almost reverent voice.
Eudora nodded. She went toward the cradle, and the man followed. Shelifted the curtain of lace, and there became visible little feeblywaving pink arms and hands, like tentacles of love, and a littlepuckered pink face which was at once ugly and divinely beautiful.
"A fine boy," said the man. The baby made a grimace at him which washideous but lovely.
"I do believe he thinks he knows you," said Eudora, foolishly.
The baby made a little nestling motion, and its creasy eyelids dropped.
"Looks to me as if he was going to sleep again," said Lawton, in awhisper. Eudora jogged the cradle gently with her foot, and both werestill. Then Eudora dropped the lace veil over the cradle again and movedsoftly away.
Lawton followed her. "I haven't my answer yet, Eudora," he whispered,leaning over her shoulder as she moved.
"Come into the other room," she murmured, "or we shall wake the baby."Her voice was softly excited.
Eudora led the way into the parlor, upon whose walls hung some rea
llygood portraits and whose furnishings still merited the adjectivemagnificent. There had been opulence in the Yates family; and in thisroom, which had been conserved, there was still undimmed and unfadedevidence of it. Eudora drew aside a brocade curtain and sat down on anembroidered satin sofa. Lawton sat beside her.
"This room looks every whit as grand as it used to look to me when I wasa boy," he said.
"It has hardly been opened, except to have it cleaned, since you wentaway," replied Eudora, "and no wear has come upon