At the end of a quarter of an hour they were exchanging confidences about their favourite books . Jerry was a confirmed Kiplingomaniac , but Miss Ponsonby adored Laura Jean Libbey . She said sorrowfully she supposed she ought not to read novels at all since her father disapproved . We found out later on that Mr. Ponsonby 's way of expressing disapproval was to burn any he got hold of , and storm at his daughter about them like the confirmed old crank he was . Poor Miss Ponsonby had to keep her Laura Jeans locked up in her trunk , and it was n't often she got a new one . From that day dated our friendship with Miss Ponsonby , a curious friendship , only carried on from window to window . We never saw Miss Ponsonby anywhere else ; we asked her to come over but she said her father did n't allow her to visit anybody . Miss Ponsonby was one of those meek women who are ruled by whomsoever happens to be nearest them , and woe be unto them if that nearest happen to be a tyrant . Her meekness fairly infuriated Jerry . But we liked Miss Ponsonby and we pitied her . She confided to us that she was very lonely and that she wrote poetry . We never asked to see the poetry , although I think she would have liked to show it . But , as Jerry says , there are limits . We told Miss Ponsonby all about our dances and picnics and beaus and pretty dresses ; she was never tired of hearing of them ; we smuggled new library novels -- Jerry got our cook to buy them -- and boxes of chocolates , from our window to hers ; we sat there on moonlit nights and communed with her while other girls down the street were entertaining callers on their verandahs ; we did everything we could for her except to call her Alicia , although she begged us to do so . But it never came easily to our tongues ; we thought she must have been born and christened Miss Ponsonby ; `` Alicia '' was something her mother could only have dreamed about her . We thought we knew all about Miss Ponsonby 's past ; but even pale , drab , china-blue women can have their secrets and keep them . It was a full half year before we discovered Miss Ponsonby 's . * * * * * In October , Stephen Shaw came home from the west to visit his father and mother after an absence of fifteen years . Jerry and I met him at a party at his brother-in-law 's . We knew he was a bachelor of forty-five or so and had made heaps of money in the lumber business , so we expected to find him short and round and bald , with bulgy blue eyes and a double chin .
On the contrary , he was a tall , handsome man with clear-cut features , laughing black eyes XXXXX a boy 's , and iron-grey hair .
From In about although as at like of that to