The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-09-12
ISIS VIRGINIA LANE was a

iVk young woman Wen descended.
To her family the country stood
more or less indebted for three officers
Of general rank and a minister TO a sec
ondGry power; the latest Lane had been
a fnaucIer. Miss Virginia was drawing
water from a poorly constructed we'll
on a badly kept ranch in the foothills
of Buckskin valley. And the latest
Lane chad he been alive would have
deplOred to see his daughter so en-
plUyed.
1t was 6, or thereabOuts, and the girl
lad only to raise her head to see the
transient beauties of an Arizona sun
set which had reached the primrose
transformation. But she had no time
for the sky; nor, for that matter, for
the consideration of her family, likewise
come to its evening. Cattle bawIed from
behind the stockade, where they waited
their evening meal. They besought
Miss Virginia TO hurry.
Now, a voice reached the girl from
below, where the valley road ran near
her house. She caught the patter of ap-
preaching horses; and, as he came near
or, the voice of their driver singing. all
10 himself, as he took the down grade,
some doggerel words to the tune OF La
PaIOma":
81 tn ventana vieu9 Un burro faCU
Trata le con carino, IS su retrato.
Which, by translation, is TO be read:
If to thy window comes q skinny dom
key
Use him with kindness, he is your
portrait
Patta-pat. pat, pat-the hoof-beats
came clearer. and stopped. The driver S
song was arrested. She set her bucket
down and faced about, and Immediately
flushed with anger, for the man down
below was staring. Her quick sensitive
ness noted that he had drawn I'm his
horses the better to observe. The house
of wretched unplaned boards with its
defective roof, the des0late barnyard
back of it, the well which stood d mon
ument to her brothers IefU-haudedness
herself beside that well-the stranger S
scrutiny took i'm all.
And now he was getting out of his
blackboard, and now he had made one
stride of the wire fence and was com
ing up the incline to where she stood.
The Cumulating anger of a long day i'm
famed Virginia as he came on: a large
man, with a dominating back tilt to his
head and blue eyes that pretended to be
gentle
when I was in Guaymas," he es-
sayed.
Very well, sir" Virginia replied
The man abandoned his first form of
address. Unless" he observed. my
directions are wrong, this is where you
live. In short, YOU must be Virginia
Lane"
The girl looked down at her small
SCARED hands. bit her lip, and looked up
again. And them" she demanded.
"I am Nelson" said the intruder.
Very well, Mr.. Nelson, since YOU
have come up here to tell me that 7 viii
thank YOU for the information and
and-aud direct your attention to the
fact that your horses are waiting down
below, and the road 10 town is straight
ahead"
You don't understand" said the
man. If you're Miss Lane then I'm
your cousin" He went on hurriedly.
10 fOrestal interruption. Wasn't your
mothers second husband a Nelson? and
didn't his eldest son by his first wife
come out to Arizona twenty years ago
tand I lad of 10 at the time)2 and
didn't I learn by the papers of the death
of your father lately2 and wasn't IL
brought to me, lately, that You and your
brother had come out here 20 live? Why,
] held you when you were a baby. And
q for consequently. there's not a drop
Of it between us; but the ties of family
for all that. And I'm IT your service,
Virginia. and he ended. Ihope you'll
command me"
The girl looked away for moment.
IF" she returned presently. of this is
true-and I have no taste 20 20 in fur
ther-mUst you be reminded that since
twenty years there has been no com
merCe between my famiy-and yours o."
That is nothing he replied. "in the
face OF what ! have heard. and now see
with my own eyes, that a relative of
mine needs help"
Help" she cried. Have we asked
for help? Let me put YOU ques-
ton. AR Nelson: IT assistance was
what we re.,dred, might YOU not have
proffered 1t earlier"
Il was down iu Guaymas." ne said
Mexico is another country, and when
one has duties TO employer and en-
pIoyed ne cannot leave thcm-on The
impulse
Impulse" she repeated, with anoth-
er infection than his.
''But I am here now be said. 'I
need not tell you that ] have been a
successful man. Ny resources lie
stopped. hesitated. Things are not well.
heres bout" he ended. Il can see-that
1t is So
She came nearer to him ny r step.
"Whv, then have you intruded, know
ing 50 well how IL is with us2 Cannot
] see as well as you that the fences are