Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-08-17
CHAPTER xIv.-CoNr1NuEp.
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''But you will let me know what it all
means, Norrie? It is SO hard to credit
Johns being a brute to you, when your
leaving him as you did has just knocked
all the go and the grit out of him."
Nora's thin lips curled incredulously,
and she fumbled restlessly with the
contents of her portfolio.
Dick closed his eyes with groan of
despair.
''Does the leg hurt very much? Let
me wet the bandages."
SCI had forgotten all about the pesky
thing. 1t is you who hurt very much.
ooh, Lord, if people only wouldn't be
so mysterious! There is some mistake at
the bottom of all this misery, and that's
what 1 said to Lorrie when RATE and I
left home. I said: 'Lorrie, everybody
goes to the city when they get misera-
BILE and want to hide. Sib Fairbanks
went there, Dennis went there, and
Johns wife has gone there I said:
'Lorrie, you needn't blurt it all out to
John, but when we get to New Orleans
Rafe can hunt Dennis up, and I'll ferret
out Johns wife. When find her. I'll
kill her but what I'll get to the bottom
of this nonsense
''And now here you arc"
''Where is Rafe? Why is he not here
with you?' Nurse Hamilton asked, in a
dry, harsh voice.
''He got off yesterday with Dennis. I
missed the boat, you know. 1 meant to
have gone, too"
''And who is Dennis?''
t'Who is Dennis? Didn't John ever
tell you about Dennis and Ida Fair
banks? That's another Lorimer mess"
The portfolio slid from Nurse Hamil-
toms lap upon the polished bare floor
and lay there UNDECIDED. Dick was in a
private apartment. There were no
other patients to see the gentle, white
capped ministrant kneel beside his
narrow iron cot, clasp his hands in both
OF hers, and, with her soft eyes glued
ravenously to his face, whisper, in
voice over which she had lost all con-
troll:
mo. I never so much as knew there
was a DenHis Lorimer. Dear, dear
boy, tell me about Dennis and Ida
Fairbanks"
Then Dick told her-somewhat fan
tastically, perhaps, for he was young,
and the romance of it grew with the
telling-an that he knew of Dennis
unfortunate wooing of the Glenburnie
maiden.
''And, you see, of all us boys he add
ed, John is the only one who would
ever consent to be a go-between. It
looked like playing trick on mother.
But Dennis and John were always par
ticular cronies, and the last time he
came up he coaxed John over, and John
coaxed her over. She went with John
one night to see Dennis at old Isham's
house. They patched it up some way
between them. Then when mother got
i'll, she began to worry so over Dennis
that Rafe and I started out in search of
q brother, and found him. But you
were the long-lost sister was hunting
for. / got disheartened, though, and
agreed to go home with the boys
''Diclk, oh, Dick, / have been such an
awful fool! John will never forgive
me-never! He ought not to-
Johns wife was sobbing, there on her
knees by the boys bedside. He laid his
hand caressingly on her bowed head.
Wont you please tell me all about
1t, sister Nora? 1 know I'm nothing
but lubberly boy, but we Lorimer boys
don't go back on our womenlind for n
trifle. / told the boys Norrie was all
right. Thank God, you have not made
me take word of it back. Won't you
let me send word to John, Norrie? Just
telegraph the one word: Come"
''Not yet. Wait. Go to sleep now,
dear. must think, alone
She stood up, kissed him tenderly on
the forehead, and then stole quietly
away to her own room.
The day was nearly gone when she
came back to him. Her face, thinner
and whittier by many degrees, Dick
thought, than when John had first
brought her to White Cliffs, wore a look
OF such absolute serenity that it had
gained an angelic touch of beauty.
''Norrie, you are divine! You look as
If you had been closeted with an
angelo
81 have been,'' she said, with sweet
gravity-'the angel of peace. have
written to John myself, Dick
''Hurrah! Won't somebody please
throw up my hat for me?-that is, if
own such piece of furniture
''And oh, Dick, are the Lorimers for
giving?"
1.-The Lorimer forgiveness is not in
volved here. Oh, by the way, this came
while you were gone" He put an un-
sealed note in her hand. ''That must
have been a monstrous long letter, Nor
rie. You've been gone three hours"
She did not answer him. She was
reading the note. Feminine instinct
made her look at the signature first.
.'Sibley Fairbanks" She started, and
with wildly beating heart read on.
What she read was this:
my DEAR MR. LORIMER: I have Just heard
by the merest chance (your surgeon being a
personal friend of mine) of your announcement
accident He tells me that there is not q
shadow of danger attendant upon it. I should
have called in person to inquire, but am making
forced and hurried preparations to leave for
Glenburnie, having just been wired that my
Esther is dead Permit me to express my re-
grets at your pain and detention. Your friend
and neighbor, SHELLEY FAIRBANKS"
Sibley Fairbanks. Poor Amelia's
first husband! The man who had de-
serted her SO heartlessly. She had never
seen him. Nellie married him while
she, Nora, was teaching in a school in
Arkansas. But Mellie's child would
know its father at last. Would it be for
Ninette's happiness?
She folded the letter and slipped it
back in the envelope. Dick had opened
It impulsively by running his forefnger
under the flap. The unbrolSen wax inn
z,ressiOn of a martlet confronted her