The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-21

jealous of her lover, she was woman enough
to loose no chain that bound him.
Her heart was fluttering and her face was
pale, as she stepped into her mother
room and bent TO kiss her forehead, and
Mrs. Farrar looked at her wistfully, as
though half ready to plead for the honest
fellow she had grown to trust and honor
From Mrs. Daunton Ellis had wrung the
admission that some years ago she had
met and known Mr.. Ormsby. From Jack
0rmsby she had learned that he had never
known Mrs Daunton in his life, and her
heart was filled with misgiving as she went
swiftly down the stairs, turned sharply at
the bottom and in an instant stood at the
library door. Just as she expected, there,
peeping through the heavy meshes of the
portiere, invisible to any one in the parlor,
yet able to study its occupants at will;
there clutching the silken folds in her
beautiful white hands, with a face pallid
and quivering with emotion, with great
tears trickling down her cheeks; there,
deaf to her coming, stood Helen Daunton,
gazing spellbound at the man who had
dared to approach her-ElliS Farrar-in
the guise of lover.
And Jack Ormsby had vowed that never
until he met her had he known what 1T
was to love a woman, vowed that his heart
had been all her own ever since the winter
of her fathers death, ever since the bitter
day he had to break to her the dreadful
news, and yet, here before her eyes, was
evidence that this woman could look upon
him only in uncomfortable emotion. What
folly to talk to her of never having seen
Helen Daunton before And even then an
idea flashed upon her. Under some other
name he must have known her, and though
he might deny the name he could NOT
deny the woman. Jealous, doubly
jealous, she sought to bring them
face to face, and entering the Ii
brary, quickly turned on the cleo
trio light and would have opened
the portiere and babe him come to her
there, but Helen Daunton turned and fled.
Ali Ellis could afterward extort from her
was that in her unhappy past Jack Ormsby
had befriended her-stood by her in the
sorest need, and she would be grateful to
him to her dying day.
"And yet" said Ellis, ever doubtful and
suspicious, "you refused to see him, you
shrank from him, you would not meet
him." But to this there was no reply.
That night was Ormsby's last call before
he went abroad. And now with Christ
mas near at hand, and her jealousy ever
wrestling with her better nature, and the
respect, even the regard she felt growing
within her for this lovely woman. who was
so devoted to her mother, Ellis Farrar
knew not what to think OF say when she
noted the unerring signs of Malcolm Leale's
growing love and of the evident pleasure,
despite all her gentle reserve, the woman
felt in his society.
Even to Helen then the coming Christ
mastide was bringing that which women
prize and welcome Only Ellis in all the
busy garrison found no comfort in the
happy season, for the lover she longed and
longed to see was by her own act banished
from her life.
Day after day, as December wore on, and
she noted the faint color that had come
back to her mothers face, and even at this
altitude, so far up toward the heights of
the Rockies, her mothers heart gave no
symptoms OF distress, Ellis grew, thankful
for their coming, even when she heard that
Ormsby had at last returned and was again
in New York. Day by day, as she watched
Mrs. Daunton, all her old fears and fancles
seemed shamed to silence. So gentle. so
pure hearted, so full of grace and loving
kindness she seemed. Sometimes 1t was
even on Ellis lips to speak an impetuous
appeal, to throw herself on Helen's mercy,
proclaim the injustice, the cruelty OF her
| jealousy and her suspicious, but to i'm
plore her to tell the whole truth. They
who watched soon saw that even in pro-