Mexico Missouri message., 1903-11-05
cHAPrER xx-contInued.


MIS-. Allen was in an adjoining room
reading to Mrs. Green. Mrs. Green
was a woman one could love at a
glance and love always; her sweet old
lace was flushed with pink, her brown
eyes were soft and gentle, her silken
white hair was brushed in waves back
from her face and softened by cap
Of lace; her Toic4 was what a woman's
voice should be, sweet but firm. low
but perfectly modulated. She took
Dolores right into her mOtherly heart,
knowing every word or her history
so far as her son knew II, knowing,
too, without being told, that this was
the girl her son loved. And the slen-
der, silent girl seemed to melt toward
her as toward no one else, though at
first It was very bitter this having to
accept hospitality from the mother OF
the man who had been so wronged.
She had been forced 10 accept the
hospitality of his mother--been forced
and with no excuse to place the &C
ceptance out of the question, because
there was no excuse she could offer
when they took her father from the
little house, bearing him carefully to
the carriage waiting for him at the
gate, soft with cushions and pillows of
down, to the station and the city some
thirty miles below the town down the
valley. with Doctors Dunwiddie and
Grey and her uncle. They had every
thing that money could buy to gain
comfort for him. A car was reserved
for him on the train: everything abb
solutely was done that could be for
his comfort And then they had
forced upon her the acceptance OF this
hospitality.
Mrs. Green was watching Dolores
through the open doorway leaning
back on the cushioned sofa, her soft
hands folded in her lap at this her
rest time" of the day as she listened
to Mrs. Aliens reading, her thoughts
somehow tangled with that and the
girl at the western window in the sun
set lights and the boy of her heart
their only child, the best son, she often
said, laughing, that mother ever had.
Dora was partly in shadow though
her face, too, caught the glow from
above. The silence that had followed
Dolores all her life seemed to fall like
veil around her, and even to her
cousin for the time. The sunset lights
faded aind died; a mellow darkness
enveloped the eastern slope of the
mountain; the road that wound up its
side was like a slender thread in the
darkness. Suddenly the sound of a
church bell smote the air, and Dolores
started, turning from the window.
What is it," she asked of Dora, and
Dora arose as she answered her:
Church bells, Lorie," touching the
hand nearest her shyly, as though sne
were half afraid. This is Wednesday
evening, and the bell is ringing for
prayer meeting"
Dolores made no further remark on
the subject. She knew nothing OF
prayer meetings or church bells; they
had little interest for her; her
thoughts were with her father, with
young Green, with many things out
side OF this commonplace subject
She turned from the window, however
bringing her face into shadow. Mrs
Allen had ceased her reading, and was
watching the girls with an inscrutable
expression in her eyes. Had she failed
AFTER all her planning? There seemed
no difference in the friendship be
tween this girl and the son of theiI
host. And as she could not win Dors
from her cousin she could at least
make this stupid girl feel some of the
bitterness she held in her own heart
That, at least, was worth planning
for. She was so deeply buried II
these thoughts that she started ner
vously when Mrs. Green called the
girls in her soft, low voice.
my dears," she said. ARE you no
ready to join us now? We have watch
ed the picture you make until now W.
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