Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/139



ALLY was singing. And Uzal Ball, listening outside his mother's kitchen window, was smiling with pleasure. For Sally's voice rose like a lark, higher, higher, until the clear sweetness of it seemed to fly into his very self and tug at his heartstrings. Suddenly, however, the song stopped with an abruptness that left Uzal a-gaping, when a very human ejaculation of dismay following the song sent him hurriedly stealing away, with a furtive, foolish glance around to see that no one had observed his foolishnessfoolishness. [sic]

He flushed a deep, angry crimson when, raising his head, he saw David teasingly grinning down at him from the half-story landing of a flight of outside stairs. Neither brother said a word. Only Uzal knew that David was thinking: "Ha—he be sweet upon the little maid!" And Uzal was furious accordingly, for who likes to be observed paying unconscious court! Especially when one is a rather sour, dour young man of settled bachelorhood.

Meanwhile, Sally was staring down sadly at a