Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-12
CHAPTER XII.

Sne insisted, III ANXIOUS protest W ueT NUS
band, as the detective slid quietly from the
store.
CHAPTER XII.
The Hallidays lived but a few rods from
the Sutherlands. Yet as it was dusk when
Miss Halliday rose to depart Frederick
naturally offered his services as her es-
cort.
She accepted them with a slight blush,
the first he had ever seen on her face, or
at least had ever noted there. 1t caused
him such surprise that he forgot Amabel's
presence in the garden till they came upon
her at the gate.
"a pleasant evening"" observed that young
girl in her high unmusical voice.
Very was Miss Halliday's short reply;
and for a moment the two faces were in
line as he held open the gate before his
departing guest.
They were very different faces in feature
and expression, and till that night he had
never thought of comparing them. Indeed
the fascination which beamed from Amabel
Pages far from regular countenance had
put all other faces out of his mind, but
now as he surveyed the two the candor and
purity which marked Agnes features came
out so strongly under his glance that the
countenance of Amabel lost its charms,
and he hastily drew his young neighbor
away.
Amabel noted the movement and smiled.
She had no fears of Agnes. Halliday.
Perhaps she might have felt less conf
dence if she could have seen the short
glances he cast his old playmate as they
proceeded slowly down the road. Not that
there was any passion in them; he was too
full Of care for that, but the curiosity which
could prompt him to turn his head a dozen
times in the course of so short a walk to
see why Agnes Halliday held her face so
persistently way from him, had an ele-
ment of feeling in it that was more or less
significant. AS for Agnes, she was so unlike
her accustomed self as to astonish even
herself. Whereas, she had never before
walked a dozen steps with him without in
dulging in scme sharp saying, she found
herself disinclined to speak at all, much
less to speak lightly. In mutual silence,
then, they reached the gateway leading
into the Halliday grounds. But Agnes, hav-
ing passed in, they both stopped and for
the first time looked squarely at each other.
Her eyes fell first, perhaps because his had
changed in his contemplation of her. He
smiled as he saw this, and in a half care
less, half wistful tone said quietly:
Agnes, what would you think of a man
who, after having committed little else but
folly all his life, suddenly made up his
mind to turn absolutely toward the right
and to pursue it in face of every obstacle
and every encouragement"
Il should think she slowly replied, with
one quick lift of her eyes toward his face,
that he had entered upon the noblest
effort of which man is capable and-the
hardest. l should have great sympathy for
that man, Frederick"
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face with bitter aversion, as he gazed into
the womanly countenance he had hitherto
sighted as undressing. ITS the first
kind word you have ever given me, Agnes.
Possibly it is the first | have ever deserved
And without another word he DOTTED his
hat, saluted her and vanished down the hill
side.
She remained; remained so long that it
was nearly . when she entered the family
parlor. AS she came i'm her mother looked
up and was startled at her unaccustomed
pallor.
"Why, Agnes" cried her mother, what is
the matter?"
Her answer was inaudible. What was the
matter? She dreaded, even feared, to ask
herself.
Meantime a strange scene was taking place
in the woods toward which she had seen
lNh Bb' ut IlbOli WHICH as par
t~icularly bright that night, shone upon a
certain hollow where a huge tree lay. Around
II the underbrush was thick and the shadow
dark, but in this especial place the open
Ing was large enough for the rays to enter
freely. Into this circlet of light Frederick
Sutherland had come. Alone and without
the restraint imposed upon him by watch
ing eyes, he showed a countenance so wan
and full Of trouble that ii was we'll 1t could
not be seen by either OF the two women
whose thoughts were at that moment fixed
upon him, To Amabel it would have given
a throb Of selfish hope, while to Agnes it
would have brought a pang of despair which
might have somewhat too suddenly inter-
preted to her the mystery of her own sem
sations.
Ho had bent at once to the hollow space
made by the outspreading roots just mem
toned, and was feeling with an air of con-
iidence along the ground for something he
had every reason to expect to find, when
the shock of n sudden distrust seized him,
and he flung himself down in terror, feeling
and feeling again among the fallen leaves
and broken twigs, till a full realization OF
his misfortune reached him, and he was
obliged to acknowledge that the place was
empty.
Overwhelmed at his loss, aghast at the
consequences it must entail upon him, he
rose In a trembling sweat, crying out in his
anger and dismay:
she has been herel She has taken it,"
and realizing for the first time the subtlety
and strength OF the antagonist pitted against
him, he forgot his new resolutions and even