Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-09-28
CHAPTER XXYIII.-Conr1xuEp

when heard
Heard" and up went the hands in
impotent wrath and protest. How
dare you-listen? Oh! Don't | know
what" but then the torrent of her
words was stemmed by the sight of the
changing light in the deep blue eyes,
and all in a second she saw them cloud
ing again as in pain and amaze they
had clouded the bitter night of her
impetuous, inexcusable attack two
years agone. Yes, and his face was
paling, his lips setting. He was see-
ing her again as time and again in
minds eye he must have seer her
unjust, ungrateful, unreasoning, in
face of all that he had done and en-
dured for her and for those she loved.
And then-O heaven! with pain, dis
appointment, yet with conviction
conviction that she was after all not
the Resale he had loved and wor-
SHIPPED in spite of herself, but the
Resale she really was-proud, passion
ate, ungrateful, unjust; yes, utterly
unworthy-he had dropped his strong
hands and was slowly turning-surely
turning away. Now he would go and
never dream how she had prayed for
forgiveness and for him and for the
time when she could tell him all. And
o he had come all unannounced and
had startled and stunned her, and
heard-heard her weak, unmaidenly
words, and, ah, there was the rub!
would think, would surely think that
she knew he was there, and so was
only acting a part to lure him back.
Oh, the shame, the bitter shame of it!
But meme the less was he going, and
this time it might be for good and all.
1t was more than she could bear. 1t
was the last and cruelest stroke of the
evil fate that had SO long bounded and
pursued her. 1t broke the last prop
of her stubborn womanly pride, her
long-tried, falling strength, and for
the first time in her daring, fearless,
resolute life, Queen Rosalie threw out
~nerveless, cropping hands for aid, and,
sudden as the stroke Of heaven, went
crashing down.
o blessed sun that sank behind the
ridge and would not see! o blessed
songsters that, trilling their last good
night, would suffer no other sound. 0
wise old Pyramus to wander off be-
meath the poisoning trees and give
place to him who sprang, too late to
seize; who knelt and, defiant of
hygienic laws, lifted the bonnie,
swooning head; clasped again the now
plant, yielding form, pressed kiss aft
er kiss upon the soft, unresponsive but
unresisting lips, and plead and prayed
and called on heaven and on her until,
with faint sigh, the fiuttering breath
returned, and then the dark eyes slow
iy opened, and one moment seemed
ready again to blaze with the battle
fire of the south, but that presently
took refuge beneath the white flag of
their own. long-lashed lids, and with
another sigh, with a soft glow steal
Ing slowly up over rounded throat and
check and even to the snowy brow,
The beautiful, hunbled face turned fair
~ toward him ana buried itself in the
blue of the broad shoulder. Like that
Of Appomattox, II gas the surrender of
utter exhaustion.
They were standing two hours later
in the dusk Of the old portico. There
had been a blessed, yet almost solemn,
meeting at the bedside of the aging
father, and all the story of that la
mentable month two years earlier, with
many a tear had been told. With the
squire and Elinor returned to the west
there was no n to warn them
against McKinnon, who from the very
first had seemed to gain the guileless
doctors confidence. 1t vas Chilton's
childlike belief that every well-man-
nered man was a gentleman until
proved otherwise, and it was not long
before McKinnon knew all about them
and all about Jack. 1t had been Rosa
lies growing belief that her aunt must
have had help, and that Squire Benton
or his son was the helper; but at the
last her father amazed her with the ad-
mission that he had given his personal
note to McKinnon for money to be
sent to Jack, and for other needs. Lit
tie by little her intuitive aversion to
the man had given way before his ap-
parently unobtrusive courtesies. He
had never limited at such a thing as o
quarrel with the Bentons, father or
son. He never referred to them ex-
cept guardedly until Ladue's recapture
and Jacks narrow escape. Then he
had told her aunt, to whom he had
been kindness and helpfulness itself,
that the plan was known to the secret
service, that Benton and Ladue had
been still in covert correspondence;
that Ladue wished to make it appear
that he was striving to rejoin his regf-
ment, while in point Of fact he planned
to be again captured and confined
where he could escape the dangers Of
the battlefield. and the expedition to
capture him and Jack was guided by
information furnished by Benton him
self-Benton, who had been under a
cloud and hoped by the capture Of con-
federate officers to win his way back
to favor. Resale had Indignantly re-
sused to believe at first; had even had
a fierce verbal ARRAY with the major,
who brought the Virginian, Jennings,
to prove a truth that, is McKinnon
put it, he never thought could reach
her ears or it should W have es-
capped these lips" An eloquent man
was McKinnon. and music was in his
voice and mischief in his soul. Benton
had planned, he said, to capture Jack,
and Jennings there stood ready to
wear to 1t. Then, before she had time
to recover herself, she had been ush-