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r-r -7v - - . rf" The Emancipation i Of the Chaperons. By ALICE LOUSE LEE. 0 i Copyright. 19u5. by Alice Lsutisc L< e. i *'? ? 1 n:" Aferri wet her stretched I I his lops out luxuriously in S jj front of the prate and polled A A at his pipe. "A Christmas ! house party at The fines." Then after j a pause. "Who are invited?" llis nephew leaned against the mantelpiece and stuffed his hands into his j pockets as he enumerated the guests, j the uncle keeping up a running and caustie comment: "Eugaged going to Ik* -introduced for uiutriinonial purposes -engaged the same." The numeration reused. "Yes. I see myself helping to chap- | erou youF house party. I stroll into j the reception room and stumble over ' an eugaged couple. I sneak ink) the library and am frowned out again, by I a newly introduced couple. I bang into the music room and overhear a proposal. No. thank you. Roy; I shall spend Christmas in peace and my own room." Roy picked up his bat and moved toward the door. "Modern house parties are not conducted along the lines you've laid down, uncle. Change your mind and Jndge for yourself." He turned the knob. "By the way, I didn't mention the other chaperon, did I? It's Mrs. AngelU Bertha's widowed aunt, you know." With this parting shot, which he knew was effective. Koy j discreetly retreated. After he had gone Merriwether sat : an hour staring at the fire and pulling j away at a smokeless pipe. Then he arose and looked earnestly at himself In the mantel mirror. "We're apt to run down." he apostrophized his reflection; "apt to run to seed, we bachelors. Now, rbis tie let's see. It's six months out of style, and Gertrude used to be hum." He stepped to the phone I and called up his tailor, realizing that bia mind had already undergone the change Roy hoped for. Ten days later he arrived at The Pines Just iu time to dress for dinner. Be was accompanied by a man and a mart lot of luggage, accessories which made so marked a change in his appearance that when at 6 o'clock he de- , accntled to the lower hall Bertha Monroe. awaiting her aunt at the foot of tha stairs, surveyed him in delighted amazement. I "Why, Uncle Bruce." she exclaimed, "yon look so fine I scarcely knew you!" j Bertha was his nephew's fiancee and already claimed relationship in private , to the uncle. "I'd make Roy wear venlng clothes In the morning if he bad such a splendid figure so filled out, you know." ilerrlwether. following her into the living room, laughed grimly at the doubtful compliment. "Ob. he'll tip the , scales at 220 soon enough, don't worry!*^ "You surely don't look that Rtout," ! began Bertha and, turning abruptly toward the entrance, finished with. "Does he. a untie?" Gertrude Augell swept past her niece j and met Merriwether's outstretched 1 I hand cordially. "i^ook. r wny, ne toots urprisingly like the Bruce Merriwether I used to know so well." "Fifteen years ago," was on the end of Merri wether's tongue. but he check- j etl himself Just In time. Gertrude prob- i ably Ignored lapses In time as women have a habit of doing, he thought. But forely hers was a face, a form, a bear- ! log, which bad so successfully with- j Stood time as to eutitle her to the ap- i pellntion of youth. Her brown hair j had not lost its luster, nor had her blue eyes lost aught of their sparkling In- i terest In life, while she carried herself with her old tiiue spring and vivacity, j Merriwether noted all these things as > he sat opposite her at dinner. Ills; memory flashed picture after picture before him the primary days in their i Old home school, their grammar room betrothal, the warm friendship of later i y vears. which had meant something more to him; then lier marriage and ; life abroad. As he looked at her he ; I had the uncomfortable feeling that, although her birth had antedated his by one year, she was many years his i"' Junior. He was just characterizing himself ai "old" wheu his nephew's voice aroused him and added point to his reflection. "Tomorrow morning we skate." announced Hoy Joyfully. "I've had the pond back here cleared for action, and the ice is O. K!" Then he added carelessly, "By the way. Unclej Bruce. I forgot to tell you to bring J akates along, but I can easily provide i you with a pair." Merriwether quaked inwardly, but : made no reply until after dinner, when he backed his nephew into a corner and addressed him privately and force-1 fully, "I've not been on skates for ten ! vMrs and I dou't intend to make a spectacle of myself now by any I means." "Why. uncle--er you know, that, makes things rather awkward, for Mrs. Angell does all those things so well, and er we don't want her to feel bored here." "Oh!" groan in 1 Merrl wether. "In that case I'll try, hut watch out f?r a repetition of a chapter in the 'Pickwick i Papers!'" and lie turned abruptly into the ballroom. "Are you looking over the scene of j former triumphs?" asked a gay voice | beside him. Aud Mrs. Angell moved ! across the room to straighten a candle in one of the candelabra. Merriwetlicr noted with admiration her free, light step. She was a superb | specimen of womanhood, but he fer- 1 vently wished she had appeared older, j ?*Wbv Is it." he asked Impulsively, Igi tj h .. r ?inu:. "thai women re\oath so much longer than .( paus'-tl with her hand on the a;. "< and 1<? kml hark. "I think." she . :< ir.i ihouv'httuily. "it's because they i -i-: on hoinjr youthful things." >?"fo S* ?\ ??"*1 in *** lw? f1l?it1?rlir with ::n iiiVi'i!;.! groan. He would be obliged to : i .ate Mid dance and do all the other tun ooiforial'le things which forty years and 'Jlii pounds shrink from. Still as he watched her move about the room the burden of it did not seem so onerous after all. 1 herefore he danced not badly, but laboriously, all the while admiring the graceful ease of Certnale Angell's tme tious. "At least." he determined resolutely. "I'll not be caught skating, as I was dancing, without a bit of practice." It was 1 a. in. when he made this resolution and issued the command to his man. "Peter, get me up at 7 unless," in sudden inspiration, "it should lie storming." Promptly at 7 he was awakened in a reliellious frame of mind. "Stiff as a eart horse." lie grumbled. "I hope it's snow ing like blazes." The man rirised the shade and looked out. "Sky clear as a whistle, sir." So. with his sleep rut short two hours at both ends of the night. Merriwether dragpsl himself and the pair of skates, produced h.f\ his thoughtful nejiliew. out to the poud behind the bill. For an hour lie skinned his knees, huni|>ed his head and disturbed the equanimity of his temper U'fore lie was able to move alone with moderate speed and keep his feet under him. When he went in to breakfast he was thankful for a few moments alone in front of a plowing prate fire. He stretehed his aching legs toward the heat and rubbed the back of his head where a bump was appearing which i* not laid down lu phrenological charts and pains from which were darting in every direction. He listened idly to voices in the hall until bis attention was chained by two comments made just outside the door. "Isn't she a perfect delight of a chaperon? And so young too! She 'can't l?e thirty." The reply was given in a doubtful tone. "Why- e e. yes. she must be all of thirty." "Forty-one," muttered the listener doggedly, the light of his new resolve shining again in his eyes. At 10 o'clock the entire party went out to the pond, and Merriwether skated ind skated and skated until his teeth were clinched in desperation and bis forehead knitted in hip efforts to! bold out as long as Mrs. Angell did. That he was becoming a man of one idea he acknowledged to himself that aftemoou on the sleigh ride. "What Gertrude dares. I dare." he told himself in feeble jest. That sleighing party was a nightmare to him for days afterward. The drifts were deep, and the sleigh was overturned again and again, generally with Merrlwetber at the bottom of the heap, owing to the fact that sleighs incline readily in the direction of 22<i pounds. Then, to vary the monotony of the tip-overs, there were miles of hillsides with a southerly exposure where the sun had melted the snow and obliged the party to walk. Merriwether toiled up the slopes, husbanding liis wind l>v maintaining silence. watching Gertrude's elastic steps ruefully and feeling his resolutions in respect to youthful ncvs ooze from his chilled finger tips. "All out for our last climb!" cried Roy as the horses stopped at the foot of a steep rise. "This is our last hill." "Thank the Lord!" said Merriwether devoutly liehind his mustache. He She paused and looked hack. watched his chance when the attention of the others, especially (iertrude, was directed elsewhere, and then, assisting his pedal extremities laboriously over the side of the sleigh, he fell ou them heavily, trusting to luck rather than to his tired legs to keep him up right. Near the end of their climb he remarked to Mrs. Anirell. with all the nonchalance lie could command. "I should think you ladies would be a bit tired." A light laugh put iiim to shame, and a pair of dancing blue eyes met his in a glance which stripped hini of fifteen years and led him back to the days when he had walked beside her with never a thought of fatigue. "Tired!" she returned carelessly. "Ami by such a little trip as this':" That reply, coupled with the day's unparalleled exertions, turned the tide of Merriwether's resolutions. In his room before dinner he eased his aching bones iu a morris chair ami delerniineo i to return to the city early next morn- ; ing. lie would lip old and sensible and j comfortable once more. He would for- J pet (Jertrude as long as he cotild u ?t , keep up with her youthfulness. But alas for his deterniination! He j nearly forgot his bruises and sprains i that evening iu the charm of Mrs. An- j I goll s prcseuce, and he noticed. too. with a pang of something very like j jealousy, that Briggs. the youngest i, man in the party, occupied his spare , moments looking in her direction. "I'll see what the weather promises i for tomorrow," was tws irresolute com- : inent as lie reached liis room at mill- ! night ami noted that I'eter had oho- i' dienlly packed his things ready for the ; train. "If it should storui, may lie" was his last eouseious though and then he drifted off into a lam where t.'ertrnde spent her Christmases with iiiin lieside a quiet hearthstone and eliaperoned house parties no more. Next morning, when he awoke, the snow was driving against the window, while the wind whistled savagel* through the trees. Merriwether turi ed over with a deep grunt of satisfae tion. There eould Ik- no sleighing. u<? skating, no tohogganning. such a day j us this, and that night was Christmas eve and the Christmas tree. He had j pureluised an exquisite copy of "Maud" for Mrs. Angell. It was a po"iu they ' had mice read together, and lie won- j dernl if hi* memory of (lie fact would j touch her. With these thoughts he drifted back into sleep, and the morn- ! ing train went thundering cityward j without him. But his triumph over the state of the weather was short lived. At the breakfast table his nephew curdled his blood by the announcement of the plans for the Christmas trees, which yet stood in i the forest a mile across lots. "Two of | the men are sick this morning. follows, so we'll hare to fall into line and fetch ! the trees." Itoy proclaimed, with a relish l>om of twenty-three years and warm blood. The "fellows." Including Merriweth- !! er. worked In the storm until noon before the trees were properly cut. trim- 1 med. cleaned and set un In t'"? ballroom ready for the decora'Ion* and j gifts. The ladles had the decn-ition* I In charge, but Merriwetber fonnd there | was no rest for the weary. He hnl anced himself perilously by the hou. on the top of steplndder*. which swayed and creaked ominously under his weight: he climbed stairs to fetch pack- * ages from the billiard room: be searched for lost hammers and knelt on mis1?I?1 fns>L-a until li? pplomtwt Christmas i and house parties to the lower regions. i At last the trees were decorated, and Roy called the party Into the music < room to practice Christmas anthems. ' Merriwether saw his fellow workers i safely into the music room: then he j draped himself upstairs for a solacing | smoke, only to find his fire out and his I clum tier cheerless. Shoving his aching feet Into slippers, i he got himself Into a smoking jacket I lit his pipe and descended to the library. The library lay back of the living . room, far from the music, and It con- ' tained au Inviting couch, at which Merriwether had looked longingly, but ! ] had not found time so far to occupy. He pushed aside the curtains at the entrance with a broad sweep of his . hand and stepped within. Then he ' stopped "abruptly. The oonch was occu- | pied. "I l>eg your pardon, Gertrude. ! I thoueht you were singing." j < "Pinging!" she responded crossly. | struggling into a sitting posture. "Why, J I've not a shred of voice left to sing ! with!" She did not smile, but passed her liaud across her eyes in a gesture which caused a great light to break in I on Merriwether. "You're tired!" he accused in a ring- | * fug voice of triumph. j} She leaned back, resting her head | against the wall. "Tired?" she repeat- } ed in an Intense voice. "I'm half dead with the awful pace of these two days. 1 If 1 were a big healthy man now," ' glancing resentfully at the proportions ! of the man l?efore her. "I might be ' j able to endure everything and yet feel i fresh, but. Iteing a woman and forty- j . one . "Gertrude." interrupted Merriwether ! I in a tone of solemn joy. "are you forty- | one?" "Of course I am." she responded al- j ( most irritably. "You know that I am." , "Ye-es," he replied vaguely,'-coming ' nearer, "hut I didn't know that you knew it!" "I have every reason to know it" the tears were near the surface now ! "when skating gives me the rheumatism, and dancing the headache, and ., that sleigh ride" She spread her hands out in a gesture of despair. "I can't endure it any longer. I'm going ' home tomorrow on the 9:10 train and i leave you to chaperon. Nothing seems to i. tire you." The tears had reached her , lashes, and she turned her head away. Merriwether sat down heside her uninvited. "Gertrude." he began in, a ] voice iu which rang a satisfaction out of harmouy with his announcement, "the exertion attendant 011 chaperoning this house party aud keeping up I with you has given me the rheumatism ' In every joint and uiuscle, and not only the headache the effect has pcuctrated to my disposition, wmcn js A door opened somewhere, and a burst of music interrupted him. "Peace \ on earth, good will to men." The door closed, and silence reigned iu the library. A realization of the spirit of the words came to Merriwether. His light manner dropped from him. He leaned over and laid his hand ^ on (lertrude's. "Let's be old and peaceful together, dear. Don't go back tomorrow. Spend Christmas here with me." The firelight played softly over the ' woman's face. She glanced up with a smile which was tremulous in spite of < her mocking words, "Now that I think of it, Bruce. 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