Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-03-24
CHAPTER XnI.

CHAPTER XIII,
COOLEY TO THE HoP-FIELps.
When Miss Densmore stepped upon
the porch of the house she was alone.
Mr.. Wolfe had gone to the barn to
look after the Harvesting of his
horse. His interview had had in It an
unmistakable element of finality, and
at last he realized the utter hope
lessness Of further pleadings and pro-
testations. He could not understand
Miss Densmore's strange agitation
and fright at the noise in the bushes,
but why, he questioned, should he
now trouble his head about that ?
His horse was shortly ready, he
smang into the cart, gathered up
the reins, and started, in no very
amiable mood, on his 12-mile drive
to Illica.
AS Miss Densmore entered mar
row side hallway she encountered
Jack Parmelee.
"Your pole-puller left his good
byes," he said. The changed his
mind, l guess, about waitin' until
morning; thought mebbe he could
catch the train at Hintonville; want
ed me to give you this" and he held
out small slip of folded note-paper.
THANK you," said Miss Densmore,
taking it and passing into the room
where Rossiter had been brought the
previous afternoon, and where her
cousin and aunt were now sitting,
1t was, then, even as she had feared:
Rossiter had heard portion of Mr..
Wolffe's untimely declaration.
Mr.: Wolfe wished me to say
goodnight" she remarked to Miriam
and her aunt, tits so late that he
felt he must hasten back"
"Mr. Rossiter's gone. Did Jack tell
you?" exclaimed Miriam. Wasn't it
queer he should start off so, and
never come in to say good-by? 1
can't understand it. Really, / feel
quite hurt"
"oh, l suppose he thought if he
waited to say good-by to everyone
he wouldn't catch the train," re-
turned Miss Densmore with assumed
Indifference.
This attitude on her cousins part
seemed so unnatural that Miss Mer-
ton fell to wondering what could be
back of it, but she did not think it
wise to question her. There was Mr..
Wolffe's sudden departure too.
Could there be any connection be-
tween the abrupt leave-taking of the
two men? The enigma was quite
beyond her solving, and there APP
peared to be no inclination on Miss
Densmore's part to solve it for her.
The latter fingered for n moment,
and then passed leisurely from the
room. She assembled the stairs, en-
tered her chamber, and closed the
door. She did not strike light at
once. but sat down upon the edge
of the bed and gazed wide-eyed at the
wall.
She recalled what she had said on
the night Of the hop-dance, and also
her talk with Rossiter on the pre-
ceding evening. "Her promise to
herself" he had called 1t, her asser-
ton in regard to her after-thought
of her hop-picking life. Tears start
ed into her eyes. Had he come to
say good-by to her, as she surely ex-
pected that he would, she had meant
to extend to him cordial invitation
to call upon her in Illica, and some
thing in her heart told her he would
have come. Now she felt TINT in
all likelihood she should never see
him again. He had not revealed to
her his home-or the place that he
had once called home; she had gath
cred that 1t was one of the large
eastern cities, and that he was re-
turning thither to begin life anew,
that was all. The chapter seemed to
her irrevocably closed.
AZ length she rose, lighted can
die and unfolded the crumpled scrap
Of paper. "Good-by. God bless
you," she read, and then his sigma
ture-"Thilip Rossiter.'' She extin-
guished the candle, and going to the
window looked long at the sky and
the fast-thickening stars. Then she
walked to the bureau, opened one
Of the drawers and taking therefrom
little bog Of Venetian glass which