The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-04-04
reflection, saved her.

asked aIter little CONSIDERATION.
"Oh, not great DEAL" he replied care
lessly; "a few hundreds"
And how do you propose to pay your
debtsT'' she asked
THAT will be all right. The fellows
won't press for payment. They know
their only chance is to wait till get a
| bit straight"
"How do you mean to get straight, as
you call it?" she asked, smiling.
Hang it all, Gertie !" he exclaimed pet
nlantly, "let's drop this subject. I came
20 max love to you, not to talk about
| money"
Yes; but the two subjects seem to
| have become SO involved that we can
hardly mention one without talking about
the other. The best way is to detach the
pleasant from the unpleasant subject, and
| that would be most readily done by set
| Ting the money question at once, dom
you think so!"
'Oh, well, if we must talk about that
sort If thing, 1 should ask you to let me
have little money to square my &C
CENTS, while 1 look about for something
That would enable me, in time, to pay you
back-though don't think there ought to
be any debt and credit account between
man and wife,"
"Nor l." replied she gravely. IF l
marry you, all that have will be yours,
and should be very unhappy if I thought
it necessary to question how you disposed
| of it."
That's all right OF course, whatever
| do with the money will be for our COM
mon good. So that settles the thing"
he said, rising from his chair. Eight,
| ten months will be soon enough to settle
| my creditors little bills. III manage
| them !"
"But In ten months l may be as far
as ever from being able to let you have
the sum you need in the meantime, you
must be mourning fresh debts unless you
have some definite means of earning
money"
"But Audrey told me that he intended
settling the whole of the interest on the
money left by Flexmore on you for TAX
ing the care of the child off his hands,
and quite right that he should"
II know nothing at all about that. Mr..
Keene proposed a salary that thought
reasonable; if he had proposed more, I
think l should have declined to accept
it."
II must have an explanation with Aw-
drey at once. There seems to be a little
shutting here. must know the facts
of the case.
"Mr. Keene is in the next room," sug-
gested Miss Dalrymple.
Lynn replied with an expression in re-
gard to me which 1t is unnecessary OF
repeat, for think 1 have shown enough
to prove that he was a BLACKBOARD, and
quilted the room to go and have 1t out
with Audrey" in a manner so devoid Of
feeling, or even comomn courtesy, that 1t
must at once have destroyed any faith in
his sincerity that poor Gertrude cherished.
Poor Gertrude it was some time after
the door closed upon Mr.. Lynn Yeames
before she came from the room where he
left her, and then, despite the cheerful
air she assumed, perceived that she had
been crying.
Here, again, I have wondered what
she cried for. Had she not every reason
to be pleased that she had found out the
mans real character before marriage rath-
| er than after it? Was not scorn of such
base fellow enough to dry in its source
the regretful tears that would have
sprung in losing a lover? l should have
thought so. But nothing puts on so many
unlocked for aspects as human nature.
One cannot reason upon the movement of
human hearts as if they were made Of
wheels, automatically arranged, to pro-
duce from a given impulse a certain and
undertaking result. So 1 say again, poor
Gertrude! for she was weak as well as
strong.
Had she really loved Lynn? or was
she only interested in him from a belief
that her influence had ennobied him? l
cannot say; all l know is that she wept
in realizing that he was neither noble
nor lovable.
| CHAPTER XIV.
| The morning after my last visit to
Flexmore House l heard the crunching
of wheels In the ice Of the gutter, and,
glancing through the blind, 1 caught
sight of DR.. Audrey. The old gig had
been mended, and he had bought a new
nag of the same sober sort as the last.
"Ha, ha ~ thought 1; hes come to set