, 1906-02-07

OAiaN L AlilAiCillllslllo II Il
gone west in search of health-at least
Mrs. Barnett was there for that rea-
son. Her husband made the change
for love of his wife.
A certain percentage of the towns
people and the members of the special
circle in which he Barnetts moved
We're health seekers, and Ann was
deeply relieved to find that all the COM
forts of an eastern home were to be
enjoyed in the big graystone houses
on Rampant avenue. Indeed, the Bar
netts lived quite as they would have
done in Seabright or LenoX. They had
a dozen horses, Il suitable assortment
of vehicles, saddles and brides and
were enthusiasts concerning polo and
golf. Their neighbors and friends were
unfailingly ecstatic in praise of the eli
mate and the views and seemed illog-
ically anxious to placate the p%rejudices
of this naughty, pale faced, scarlet
Tipped young girl, who looked with
calm eyes Upon the great peak gloom
ing to the westward. They formed, in
fact, a colony of alien health seekers,
busted with pleasures, set distinctly
apart from the toilers and the traders
of the place.
Ann was puzzled and a bit bored by
their in%Sistence on winning her admi-
ration of the mountains and, being nat
urally perverse. withheld the express
sions of pleasure she might otherwise
have uttered. for she was profoundly
moved by what she saw.
Il never did understand that girl"
said Donnelly Barnett to his wife one
night after Il drive into the great Bear
canyon. "She has everything to make
her happy, and yet she goes about tor
pid as an oyster. What's the matter
with her?'
Jeanette sighed. That's her moth
er's blood. She's like her mother in Il
hundred ways. Louis is exactly like
his father. | remember when he came
back from his first and only trip to the
west. | was only a child, but | recall
his enthusiasm. He was Il lovable fell
low, but | never could stand Alicia.
She was positively stony. l have hopes
of Ann. Her hand is strong and warm
human, in fact. Don't you think he
Indifference a posef'
~ wish ii were. No. it's genuine"
She needs to be shaken up by a
good, hot love affair. Some man will
come
That's what I've been saying, but
the man don't come. She's twenty-six."
How awful!'
''That's the part | don't understand
about Ann. She has money, is hand-
some, and yet here she is quite Olsen
gagged, if we except her affair with
Peabody, which Adney writes is quite
as tepid as any of AIMS other affairs"
"Well. now, I'll tell you. She's come
to the right place to have men ride up
and demand attention. If she doesn't
have at least an offer a week it will not
be my fault. I'm going to invite all the
young fellows home to dinner while
she's here. Now watch things bile"
Barnett, nominally Il mining broker,
was, in fact, president of the polo club,
secretary of the Sage Grass Golf asso-
ciation-in short, financial nurse to ev-
cry collection of amiable sports in the
town. He knew all the best fellows"
III lllt Sldlt anu llON ptIdllC III pup
ular than ever. The young men accept
ed his dinner invitations with graft
tude. and each and all paid prompt and
undisguised court to 'the proud eastern
beauty" as one young fellow called
her. But they soon acknowledged fail
ure. Her reserve led to Il sense of in
jury and was reported to be arrogance.
TbpV wore seldom Hattprp1 bV the
slightest %unbending on her part.
However, several of these young fell
lows turned out on acquaintance to be
socially related to some of her friends
in Boston and New York and in that
way won a certain acceptance which
no mere civil engineer from Omaha or
professor from st. Louis could hope to
attain. They were met on the conven-
tional plane, and they got nc further
at any time.
Meanwhile Ann was really troubled
about Louis. He was eating less and
less each day, and his sleep was bro
ken, and at the end of the first week
he fell in a state of collapse. The excite
ment, the late hours, the contact with
new types and, above all, the attempt
to understand the country and his re-
%lationship with it had worn him u
Then Ann said in her decisive way: 81
don't believe his altitude is good for
Louis. | think | will take him home
again"
"Oh, don't do that. 1t isn't the alti-
tude; it's the social whirl. Send him
down to my ranch. It's a hole of a