The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-06-19

ehervescence Of her mood, her heart
was beating to the single refrain
He is coming tonight"
That night on her way home, she
perpetrated the unheard-of extrava.
gance Of buying a bunch Of violets,
and later ordering fire in the parlor.
After dinner she put on the one
frivolous gown she had afforded in
two years, soft, rose-pink crepe. and
tucking the violets into her belt went
down to meet her guest.
Gracious! you are doing the thing
up brown!" he said irrelevantly once.
gazing about the queer room with its
faded magnificence.
Fortunately they had much to say
at first about the people in Worcester
who, Crane acknowledged, had given
him the time of his life in that pleas
ant week two years ago. She could
tell him much for, until their recent
estrangement, Helen had kept her
well informed. Faithful to her reso
luton. however, she did not mention
Helen's name. Nor did he. When he
left 1t was with more than one admir-.
ing, farewell glance at Olives flushed
and sparkling face.
In the next two weeks she saw little
OF Merriam, for he was. sent on a
business trip into the middle of the
state. But Crane came two nights
later, skipped night, then three in
succession, skipped night, then con.
stantly.
Olive was beginning to get over her
shyness. Now, occasionally, she
dared to meet his eyes in pyscholo.
gical, soul-to-soul conflict, which he
often tacitly admitted to be draw by
shifting his gaze.
For the most part, however, he still
did the talking. But even there she
was beginning to assert herself. And
the drollness of her point of view, the
swiftness of her retorts often left him
beggared of words. Once or twice
she had carried joking warfare into
his very camp. That last night their
intimacy had reached the point where
1t allowed them to mediate an in
slant In silent wonder over subtle
coincidence in taste. He interrupted
1t to say carelessly: "Oh, what's be-
come of that little cousin of yours
that met in Worcester"
Olive knitted her brows for a con-
sidering second. Then an awful GER
tainty zigzagged through the crystal
of her happiness, shattering it to a
million fragments.
"A little dark thing" he went on.
"She was staying with you. What is
the matter?"
Olive was staring, stricken.
"Will you tell me what my name
is?" she asked, stupidity.
He laughed. Helen Hastings, of
course"
She pulled herself together. The
new laugh that he had helped her to
find in herself rippled out bravely.
"Now I've got it," she said in tri-
umph. From the first l wondered
how you happened to remember me so
we'll when you saw me so few times.
And you made mistake; I'm not
Helen Hastings. I'm the little dark
cousin that you speak of. My father
died soon after l met you, and l be.
came stenographer."
You're not Helen Hastings?" he
said, stupidity.
She nodded her head in assent.
They tried to talk down the con-
straint in the atmosphere, but it
made long pauses between their re.
marks.
He came again and. after long in
/ terval, once more. But his calls were
silent, joyless on her part-a little
too vivacious on his. Then for a long
time she did not see him.
The Sunday after his last call Mer,
Ram appeared, back from a success
full trip. He came into the room like
sea-breeze, singing her into re-
crudescence of her lost hAarity with
an impetuous onslaught of narrative.
He insisted on taking her away for
the day. When he left her, she had
regained all her lately lost self-con.
f1dence.
She had little chance to lose it
again, for in the next month he was
constantly with her.
One SUNDAY, TWO months later, she
was surprised by visit from Crane
She was at her very best with him
that day, for his eyes had no more
effect upon her than pair of pebbles.
It was she who did the talking, he
the listening. Before he went, he
startled her by an offer of marriage.
In the moment in which she hunted
for words in which to refuse it, she
wondered If Helen also had rejected
him. He refused to accept her mo"
and left almost elated. She felt now
she might be in possession of data
that would assure him of what her
own words evidently could not
AS matter of fact she had the
evidence that very night, for Merriam
announced that the firm had decided
on sending him to Goldfields the next
week Then he abruptly asked her to
marry him.
She accepted.
"But there are some things want
to tell you.'' she said. ewing him cl.