The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-07-20
CHAPTER XVI.

breathless suspense.
CHAPTER XVII.
Far In the night the mother and daugh-
ter again lay down to sleep that came
readily to the elder woman, and far more
tardily to the younger. In Lizzy's CEN
trail thought two opposite and irreconcila-
bic solutions Of one problem contended
for sole recognition. Had Mr.. Mason
played parts In everything he had done,
as she had charged him yesterday even
ing, and which he had not denied in so
many words? She had charged him with
this, and much morei She had charged
him with studied and persistent eulogisms
of an unknown man for the purpose of
piquing her womanly curiosity, and there
by amusing himself. He had gone on
with it day after day, week after week,
and month upon month. until he had
fully succeeded in bringing her to love
him and to yearn for him.
How many and many anxious hours
she had passed in doubts and fears for
His safety! How eagerly she had pored
over chance newspapers from the great
city, and from remote parts of the coun-
| try, hoping and fearing that she might
And how she had beamed with gladness
at each return of the absent man, an
uounced always by his assistant, and by
no one else!
| What a fool she had been! Even he
said, last night, something about her sus-
picion reaching its zenith weeks ago in
stead of beginning to dawn only the day
before. when she had seen him driving
through the streets of Sandtown, and
without his principal!
His principal. indeed. She had thrown
that fraud at him hard enough, she hop
ed. She had given him to understand
that there was no longer the slightest
chance to continue that imposition upon
her.
| Mr.. Huntley, the man of straw, The
myth! The creation of the man who had
palmed himself off on her as the assist
ant of his man Of straw! A noble and
| worthy work for q man of his attain
ments. All this merely to amuse him
| self, while he was living in an enforced
exile from the city! She had hoped she
had thrown that at him hard enough.
But again, there were many, many sin
cere looking and Understanding things
that he had done and said, all along. He
| had sought her company from the first
| day, and persistently and continuously
kept it. His manner was not that of
the languid and impatient man of the
world, tired of his enforced seclusion.
No. He had set himself about labori-
Gus task of bringing her to see some
glaring deficiencies in what she had
thought was her all-sufficient SELF He
| had gone further. He had shown his
great liking for her. He had, in effect,
sought to tell her what everybody had
long before said again and again-that
it was the plainest of all plain PROPOSE
tons, that he loved her. She had laugh
ed at that She had even confessed her
love for his principal-Huntley, the man
of straw; the myth; the creation of an
idle fancy Not only so, but she had
told him plainly that she could not then
| tell whether she were not irrevocably
bound, by a strangely romantic passion,
to what she at last recognized as the
mere creature Of another mans idle
fancy. That had gone home to him! That
had hurt-if he could be hurt.
And here, upon this very point, were
few things that she could not help go
ing over and over. And never did she,
| in "reminiscences, approach the chief of
these episodes that her heart did not leap
and her ultimate fbrils tingle, with some
thing closely akin to happiness.
| First, that sudden and unexpected APP
pearance in that cone of light that SEEM
ed to have been photographed upon her
retina, so constant was the picture. How
we'll he looked! How fttingly that half
military engineers dress became him
And what startling transformation was
| there in everything that had made the
assistant geologist tame and common
place. Even to the black, close-cut hair.
She had forgotten that among her
charges of duplicity. Perhaps the fact
that she admired black hair had been
taken as a silent conformation of the of
tense to having concealed it under q
brown wig. Had he really loved her
when he was playing his many parts on
the little Sandtown stage? If she had
been sure of that would she have ar
raigned him so bitterly?
Had she been shrewish? Had she
shown an ugly temper? She didn't be-
lieve she had an ugly temper. But what
had he thought of it? Certainly he had
seen no display of 1t in all his former
acquaintance with her. And in that In
innate relation that must exist among
people who gather In the same room ev.
cry evening, and eat at the same table
three times every day-not forgetting the
Sundays In which he had hardly left hel
side half an hour for the whole day; II
she had known this, what splendid op.
portunity to have appeared at her very
best For really, she had not tried tc
appear well. She had leased him un
mercifully. She had tainted him with
remaining contented with a subordinate
place and a scant salary. She could
lsee now how it was that he could bear
such teasing as that with q smiling stoi
i cism.
/ But, ali! the very last words he had
said to her! And the very last thing hs
did! Her face crimsoned at the recol
lection, but always wreathed with hel
sweetest, softest smiles, too. He had
looked even in that dim starlight, 81
eager, SO earnest, SO handsome. He had
said almost in the manner Of giving hi'
-isible pledge-that he would see hel
1 again! Remember that, Lizzy! HI
ould see her soon if 1t Lny within hi'
power. If it lay within his power!
And then he started away, up the darl
road. And before he had gone ten steps
he turned and saw her still standing
there and looking after him. Maybe tina
\ was how it came that he thought Of run
ming back. Very well! If she had don'
anything to bring him back for that sup
Elemental parting, she was glad Of it
He had held her q moment to his breast