El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-19
CHAPTER XII.

Mrs. Hallet, widow of the late Rich
ard Hallet, lawyer and politician, pos
seSSed one of the most beautiful homes
in that most beautiful of residence quar-
tiers, the Capitol hill of Denver, but it
had come to be remarked by her friends,
with good humored smiles, that she was
seldom to be found there save when her
journeyings elsewhere had SO clogged
her footsteps with accommodations of
brio a. brac that she was fairly driven
back to this delightful dumping ground
to disembarrass herself. Certain it was
that since the death of her husband, fol-
lowing soon after the birth of their only
child, some three years before, the wood
bine climbing the walls had had the
handsome graystone structure very
much to itself, the fair mistress of the
mansion, as often as she returned, SEEM
ing ever seized with a new restlessness
impelling her toward another departure.
There were those to remark that Bar
bara Hallet's evident lack of love for
her home might be due to the fact that
for her perhaps the place was peopled
with a company of ghosts she would
fain escape. 1t was generally under
stood that her married life had been
unhappy, her husband having been no.
ever sins of omission or commission
Dick Hallet might have been guilty of
toward his wife he had made what
atonement he might by OPPORTUNITY dy
ing, and now it appeared that the lady
must be unreasonable indeed if she i'm
agined any just cause for complaint in
a lot so fair. She was young, charming
in person and manner, and, as might
have been expected, greatly admired
and sought after, with wealth sufficient
to crafty every reasonable desire, while
she had her beautiful boy to give breadth
and purpose to her life.
''But we were perishing with ennui,
baby and l" she gayly declared when
she was making Edith Ellery welcome
in the prettiest guest chamber, one
whose windows looked across a vexed
sea of roofs ruffled with waves of sway
ing tree tops, across the vast sea of
plains beyond, bare and brown as a
beach at low tide, on to the royal noun
tain range lost in the blue mists of the
horizon line at north and south, that
rufffed line of shadowy pinks and grays
and puppies f1ecked with eternal SHOWS
to Mrs. Hallet, as to most Denverites,
one of the grandest views which earth
might offer. eff there is any place
duller than Denver in July, it must be
Denver in August. So far as appear
ances go, the city has its best foot for
ward in summer, but socially we are
simply dead. p"
"Ah, the luxury of being dead for
little whiler' returned her guest, with
something in her laugh which called a
keen light of inquiry into the soft blue
eyes which had a certain trick of seeing
most where they assumed to notice
least. "You could promise me nothing
better"
Although they had known each other
but short time, a warm affection had
grown up between these two. 1t had
happened few months before this time
that Barbara Hallet, returning with her
boy from a winter in Egypt, had loiter-
ed in New York for few weeks, when
Edith, opportunity visiting in that city,
had received peremptory demand from
the Wyoming ranch that she go forth
with to call upon Nelsine' s dearest friend
from Denver. From a matter of duty
this call had developed into delight.
Edith had fallen in love with the
charming widow at first sight, and find
ing her planning visit to her old home
in a Massachusetts, village had urged
that the journey be extended to include