The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-06

nrst time. she felt equally the lndlg-
nifty of having been kept in the place Of
a small girl after she was very big
one and the intoxication of having Jack
for her own special gallant With a
gurgling, triumphant giggle she set her
horse of at a gallop. Jack, keeping well
beside her, leaned across and caught
her reins.
"You hold on. I'll keep him in the
road, be said. noting how Nina wab-
bled in her seat He did not mind leav-
ing the Others behind. 1t could not be
very far. His mother rode as light and
free as upon her wedding day, and, as
to Miss Winfield, truth is he did not
much care if the pace he set did rufie
both her temper and her unrufheable
locks he was so hurt, so full of doubt
that was torture, any sort Of fooling
was relief Ii was more than impossi-
bic, he felt. TO endure quietly the pain
ful perfection that so beset his path. So
he kept the horses remorselessly TO their
sweeping gallop until they came TO the
foot of the hill whose top was crowned
with Bethel church.
There, "a he halted for the others 10
come up with him, he saw and heard
that which made his teeth set, his nails
clineh till they dug into the palm. 1t
was mighty inoffensive sight withal
merely four riders soberly pacing
along the dusty highway, going two and
two, and evidently so wrapped in dis
course with one another they had 10
Thought for the rest of the world.
Cerintha Payne and her minister
came first. Ten yards back Of them, sit
ting as light as thistle down upon Mrs.
Payne's ambliDg mare, Rob rode, with
Mr.. Topmark at her elbow, the very
moral Of sunny content. How was Jack
TO comprehend that the collocation was,
so far as it concerned Rob, wholly acct
dental? She had set out in company on
" of Cerintha and Cerintha's lover,
meaning to keep herself wholly and
amiably in the background. The three
had encountered Mr.. Topmark some lit
tie way beyond his own gate, and it
was the most natural and neighborly
thing in the world for him TO bear them
company the rest of the way.
If Rob had but known it, the encoun-
ter was not nearly so accidental as it
looked. Though after his cavalier dis
missal Mr.. Topmark had not dared to
seek Robs society outright, by cunning
questioning of such black folk as came
from Roscoe to the store that day he
had found out her purpose of going to
church and had plotted to join her.
Things had fallen out to nicely as he
had planned. He had disarmed suspi-
cion, he felt, by his we'll acted surprise
over the sight of Miss Payne and his
feint Of wishing to ride beside her.
"Mr. Topmarl, have you no con-
science whatever?" Rob had said over
that, pretending TO whisper, but with
an arch glance at Cerintha and the min
lister. ''That's worse than playing dog
in the manger. If that is your game,
just wait till we get past you. Then you
can come along by yoUrself-though, if
you can behave like Christian, we
shall be glad of your company.
''I'll be good, better'n lamb, eff You
say So" Mr.. Topmark had returned,
smiling fatuously. Rob had laughed
outright.
Don't you think you are trifle ma
ture for lamb, d" she had asked, ''rath-
er horny and woolly? If you had said