slim, attractive girl. She treated them
ail in an equal, friendly manner and
kept her distance. But the man to kiss
her under the peach tree was not
among them.
Slie was thinking about all of these
things as she approached the enchant
ed spot. A few petals drifted down so
gently that it seems as if the rays of
moonlight wove a silver net to catch
tlie falling blossoms and lower them
ever so liglitly to the earth.
Just as Ha stopped under the pink
profusion of the lower branches, so low
that they almost touched her head, a
man stepped swiftly from the shadows'
Ha found herself encircled by a pair
of strong arms and a voice was wliisper-
mg into Iier hair—“Marie, Marie; At
last you’ve come.”
lla lifted her eyes to meet tlie kind-
.I'"*"'. I'ad ever seen in
all her life. Gentleness shone from them
like starlight. She could see them plain
ly in the moonlight that shone through
an opening in the branches overhead.
1 hey were like pools of anguish and in
them swam a hiirning love. She was at
once friglitened and drawn by tliose
eyes.
II was doinr,
Jla lilted her face toward this stran'^er
and stood on jiptoe to receive the caress
that lay in his eyes. Holding her close,
he kissed her softly and gently yet witl.
the firmness of two centuries meetin--^
and intermingling. Ha shivered, though
she was not cold. She wondered if this
were what love was like. But wliv she
tiought, should I ask about love when
I never knew life until just now? Very
hns f ^ ten'^erly he removed his
p from hers and held her out from
him She put up her hands as if to
Z ,\tT \ here, kissing
lookeT hut as she
the . brown pools of
the nans eyes were searching hers
searching deenlv as i
ami . P;> tt seeing her soul
and probing there for truth. She re
laxed once more in his arms.
|,e^*®j,ea,!‘^ again and kissed
almo I t n henediction. Then
an7.LTt’ •“T
o ft, hrohe and he began to sob
streerAs H ^he
could’Im »he
Marie” Ir =*7 of “Marie,
finalG f fainter ami
finallJ f j anti tainter i
"’ally fade into the blue night air.
b;!t, entranced. A stranger
Marie'”But*^*l someone named
therl was and her heart said that
in^ off
hlfnkino^ r*“i * ‘hstance of tlie city’s
pair of'’de’^ nothing hut a
dvered th^ hrown eyes . . . The wind
trelTn] Tf ‘J"’ branches of the
remimle l . f her face
>er that she must go home.
tl
G
tf
Cl]
ic(
tla
Bi
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