Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-28
CHAPTER XVIII, continued.)

tCHAPTER XVIII, continued)
But he did not know - he had
come away before the wonder hap
pened. All his thoughts were now
bent on getting away. 1t was time. Vic
Morris had held Vida in his arms. He
had saved her life. Yet he knew that
she did not love him he felt she
never would. But having had her life
saved. 1t might seem only reasonable
to the girl that she should show her
gratitude to her preserver in some
way perhaps even by gift Of her
self.
Now, Vic Morris detested gratitude.
He would accept no 'preserver" bust
ness - or so he told himself. That a
girl should look the more kindly upon
him because she was grateful for his
having done anything so ordinary as
saving her life, was inexpressibly an
moving. He would as readily have
done 1t for pony-boy or door ten
der. So he said, and there is reason
to believe that he believed this him
self
That very night he began his prep
arations for quitting Kirktown. They
had been long expecting him at Rio
Tinto, not to count the extra offer he
had had from the new mines at Bill
bao. He would have look at them
as he passed through.
But what he did not know was that
flerce-eyed, naughty old man had
directed the carefully wrapped body
comfortable carriage, old Dick by her
side, while he himself took the place
with the coachman.
a
tage and the wife of the nearest
gamekeeper had been walked from
her slumbers to help Vida to bed
that Vic Morris saw the light start
out Of the sombre blur OF the CORN
woods, in the exact place where he
knew the lodge to be. BY night or
day he could Ak it as we'll as if he had
laid 1t down by chart and compass
All night long Janet Fowler, the
plain girl with the beautiful eyes,
kept those eyes open. She heard the
bump-bump Of Vics leathren trunks,
as each was filled and appended, to
be out cS the way in the corner.
Somehow. there came into her heart
a pitiful sense of desertion. With
womans clear-sightedness in that
which concerns only their own sex,
she knew that Vic Morris was going
because of Vida Bryan, and believed
that he did not think Of her even
little bit.
"Yes,. suppose she is beautiful"
she said to herself. moving little
a very little - in her bed so as to
not awake Violet; "she is what they
call beautiful. suppose that is all
men care about! No, that is a shame
of me. She is good, too, II am sure"
there Janet sighed long. as If she
wished she could con and set in a
notebook all the iniquities Of Vida
BRYAN, and then present the book for
the perusal Of Mr. Ludovic Morris.l
Janet Fowler was early awake.
That is, she did not sleep at all. But
nevertheless she came down with her
face glowing with cold water, her
hair neatly arranged and her eyes
as blue as the tarn. which is bluer
than the sky = in fact, as vel las in
Wordsworth's verse. Among her
many virtues Janet con'd not allow
anyone to leave her fathers house
not even "probationer" supplying
for a Sunday, last and least Of the
human species. without good break
fast. She knew that there was an
express at ten minutes to six. So
that at ten minutes past five the sub
stantial breakfast aforesaid was on
the table. From the hall she heard
Vic's final preparations mingling
with her fathers shores, but now
there was a lull. Had he finished?
She tapped timidly at the door;
Vic. as she had supposed, opened it,,
dressed for a journey. He stared at
Janet in establishment
Miss Fowler!' he said. And with
out meaning 1t he spoke under his
breath, as if they were a pair of cul-
prits who must thus commune Of
their misdeeds. She answered him
with nod, and the whispered infor-
nation that If he wanted to go by the
first train from Kirktown station,
breakfast was quite ready for him
whenever he liked to come down.
"But how did you know?" he asked
in establishment. ~ hadn't told a
SOUL
81 knew she said softly, looking
at the tapping foot which peeped
restlessly from beneath her grey
skirt.
But how?n he insisted.
"Well,' said Janet Fowler lifting
his face pair Of eyes which, had
man not been purbind and sef-cen-
tered animal, would have dazzlcd him
'if a man will spend all the night
tumbling about, trampling like regi-