Miss Reade 's home was a dream of a place , it appeared . The house was just covered with ivy and there was a most delightful old garden -- `` and , '' added the Story Girl , with the joy of a connoisseur who has found a rare gem , `` the sweetest little story connected with it . And I saw the hero of the story too . '' `` Where was the heroine ? '' queried Cecily . `` She is dead . '' `` Oh , of course she 'd have to die , '' exclaimed Dan in disgust . `` I 'd like a story where somebody lived once in awhile . '' `` I 've told you heaps of stories where people lived , '' retorted the Story Girl . `` If this heroine had n't died there would n't have been any story . She was Miss Reade 's aunt and her name was Una , and I believe she must have been just like Miss Reade herself . Miss Reade told me all about her . When we went into the garden I saw in one corner of it an old stone bench arched over by a couple of pear trees and all grown about with grass and violets . And an old man was sitting on it -- a bent old man with long , snow-white hair and beautiful sad blue eyes . He seemed very lonely and sorrowful and I wondered that Miss Reade did n't speak to him . But she never let on she saw him and took me away to another part of the garden . After awhile he got up and went away and then Miss Reade said , ` Come over to Aunt Una 's seat and I will tell you about her and her lover -- that man who has just gone out . ' '' ` Oh , is n't he too old for a lover ? ' I said . `` Beautiful Alice laughed and said it was forty years since he had been her Aunt Una 's lover .
He had been a tall , handsome young man then , and her Aunt XXXXX was a beautiful girl of nineteen .
Alice Cecily Dan Reade Una disgust hair ivy somebody years