Miss Rose Chester

That iuteresting operation in the back kitchen referred to by Mrs. Dunning, and but dimly apprehended by Mr. Greeley, being at length completed, there was a sound of light feet tripping briskly up the stairs, and presently the same feet tripped down again, the front door was opened, and Miss Chester ran down the garden and into the street. Mr. Greeley craned his neck perilously behind the window-blind, but saw only the back of the new lodger- though, to be sure, it was a very pretty back. By and by the garden gato swung open, and she retunied. A latch-key turnea in the door. Just then it occurred to Mr. Greoley that he would brush liis overcoat, and he stepped into the passage to take it from the peg. The paspages in. the houses at Sunnyside, West Kensington, being constructed on severely economie principies, there resulted a moinentary encounter between Mr. Greeley and Miss Chester. Miss Chester's hands were full of packages, and in her maidenly embarrassment she let one of thetn all. Mr. Greeley picked it up and replacedit. Miss Chester blushed and laughed a little musical laugh, and said, "ïhankyou." At the footofthe stairs the same ridiculous package escaped again. Mr. Grueley pickedit up and replaced it; and Miss Chester blushed and laughed, and said, '"ïhank you," as before. She had hardly set foot on the flrst landing when that same absurd package and another package slipped from her arms and raUed to the bottom of the stairs. Mr. (Treeley was equal to the occasion, gathered them up, and carried them to where Miss Chester stood- no longer laughiiig but blushing in a more desperatelybewitching way than ever. She said, "Thank you so much; how very careles3 of me!" took them from him, retreated into her room, and shut the door. 'What a very odd thingl" said Mr. Greeley as he returned. "What an extraordinavy tliing!" he said as lie reached his Bilí instroom. "I never saw packages behave in that way before. A most interesting face," he went on, as he fllled his pipe and seated himself by the wlndow; "and quite pretty littlo manners. Idon'tknow that Mrs. Duiming ought to have acted otherwise than she has done; she could scarcely have refused to tuke Miss Chester in. Old enough to be her father, eh? Let me think- 53, and Will'söl. Will's older than I am." In this way did Mr. Greeley medítate as he smoked his evening pipe. Miss Chester's face was more than interesting, though; it was exceedingly pretty - an open, girlish face, with a fresh complexión; short, curly, yellow hair; and a slender figure, which showed to advantage in a gauzy summer dress. During the day, while Mr. Greeley helped to administer the affairs of the Government Savings bank, Mr. Wylie was at home, taking his rest and ease. He made his appearanee at midday, having breakfasted in bed, and took a turn in the garden to give himself an appetite for dinner. He was going up to nis room as Miss Chester was coming down from hers, accompanied by a diminutivo dog, which sho held in a leash. The dog broke from the least). and, oblivious of the dignicy or ene presa, made for the legs of Mr. Wylie. Mr. "Vrylie had a constitutional f ear of the canine race in general, and of its smaller members in particular, and so far lost his presence of mind as to give a feeble shout, at the same time retreating backward down the stairs, to the infinite peril of his head and limbs. Miss Chester seized her puppy somewhere in the neighborhood of the tail, held it up by that appendage, and, with her fan, slapped it indiscriminately in all parts of its body, all the while uttenng the daintiest apologies to Mr. Wylie, who stood confusedly on the mat. "You bad,wicked dog.how dareyou?" and Miss Chester ghook her dog with such exceediftg vigor that Mr. Wylie feared the tail would give way. "I am afraid it will come out if you shake it that way," he said mildly, and Miss Chester desisted. Mr. Wylie opened the door for her, flattening himself again3t the wall to avoid tho puppy's grinders: and Miss Chester, with a profusión of smiles and thanks, slipped out. "Quite like a beam of Btmshine, quite f airy-like, quite - I declare, I feel saveral years younger;" and Mr. Wylie ran his fingers through his scant gray stubble, pulled up his collar, and mounted the stair3 two at a time. He took down from his bookshelf an old pocket-book, and scanned its pages attentively for a few moments. "Fifty-fourlast birthday; and Sam is 53. I f ancy I look rather younger than Sam." "Sam," said Mr. Wylie, when ho met his friend in the evening, "what do you tüink of our new lodgerï" "A very pleasing young lady, I think," answered Mr. Greeley. "Aünegirl, I think, Sam,"8aidthe sub-editor. "Oh, no, Will, I don't think I'd say that. Pleasing and - and very interesting, if you like," replied Mr. Greeley. ''.No, no;that's not half strong enough. You haven't seen her eyes, Sam. My eye, what eyes! And her mouth- oh, Sam, what a mouth!" "Steady, Will, steady," said his friend gravely. "Remember that maxim of ours." "Oh, bother, Sam. I don't think the maxim will do at all in this case. Good night. Sam. I don't tüink you need bolt your bedroom door, old fellow." And Mr. Wylie buttoned his coat and went out. ""Will is partially right," muscd tho cashier, as he sat over bis tea. "This is very much more than an 'interesting young woman.' But I don't like 'flne girl'atall. She has lovely eyes. Ididift quite like "Will's manner. I must talk serionsly with liim. Will ought not to forget his years." Within the next couplo of days a change had come over tho little household. Miss Chester, all unwittingly, was tho causo of it. Her girl's voice echoed sweetly through the house all day; and Mr. "Wylie on the first Hoor heard it, and heard it not unmoved. "Whata delicious voice!" he said to himself a hundred times a day. Then she would run up and down the stairson little orrands ot her own, and out into the garden, where herpresence made the sickly flowers and the dusty evergreens sicklier and moro dusty. "When Mr. Wylie took his solitary turn there, after she had gone, he found the garden dingy which he hadthought so gay bef ore. Then he would look down at himself, and think: " What a devil of a shabby old fellow I aml I must improve - I must brighten up a bit." But he kept his feelings and his thoughts to himself. Mr. Greeley heard the samo bird-like voice in the evening; aml would sitconcealed in the window when Miss C. ester ran out and down the street, following lier dancing steps and wishing the days back again when he had been as light of foot as she was then. Ilis parlor seemsd not so cheerful as it had been. "Bnt ifc needfi another hand than mino to brighten it," lio said. "l'm a rusty old chap," ho thought at other times. "The rust has settled on me these many years. I wonder whether any of it would rub off now." But ho kept all these things to himself. Something had interposed itself between the two old f riends - tho chief cashier and the chief sub-editor- an indescribable shadowy something that made their intercourse not quite what it had been before. They had not quarreled; they met and talked, morning and evening, as usual; but the sponto niety had gone out of their greetings, and they spoke constrainedly about things that did not interest them. She went out every evening at about 7, and returned at half-past 10. To be Canünvfd'