The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-09
CHAPTER XVI. The Wilderness Call.

I went again. and more than once, to the house of Judge Wharton, al- though I took care to see Alicia only in the company of Mrs. Guthrie or Mrs. Wharton. Despite the unconscious heights from which she looked down would not have the taint of gossip to touch her. and I took every precau- tion. It may be that she was talked about at the capital, nevertheless, but it did not come to my ears nor to hers, and if one is ignorant of such thing it does not exist so far as one is con- cerned.
 I wished to discharge all the social duties of my place, and at regular in- tervals I gave receptions at the Cover nor's mansion. assisted by Mrs. Guth- rie, Mrs. Wharton or other ladies in Frankfort, and I enjoyed them. re- peat that I have the social instinct, I like to see well-bred and handsome people together: I like the lights, the music, the bright dresses of the women and good talk. Alicia usually came with the Whartons and Mrs. Guthrie, and her manner and bearing were ir- reproachable. Although a wife, living apart from her husband. she radiated such an air of purity that she was thoroughly esta blished in the good graces of Frankfort. and if gossip touched her. as I have no doubt it did, because in every community there are foul-mlnded people, it was done ob- scurely and with caution.
 Just before giving one of these re- captions I heard that Harrison was at the capital. and I promptly sent him an invitation. He appeared on the appointed evening rather early, a dis tinguished figure. his pale, thin face lighted up with keenness and intel1i- gence. Although I believed that he had set afloat during the campaign the story about my mysterious disap- pearance. I reflected how little cause he had to like me. and I did not cher iSh hostility.
 ''Its kind of you to ask me here," he said, when I gave him the formal welcome.
 Tt is your right to come," I said.
 "I wanted to be asked" he said. "You can guess why. It's the old story of the moth and the flame. I cannot stay away from Alicia Grey forever.''
 It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him about Pauline Harmon, but I restrained the impulse. and when Alicia came l saw him watching her at a dis tance With eager eyes. Presently he went up to her and spoke. Of course ] did not hear the words, nor did I seek or wish to hear them, but I knew that she replied coldly, because his face fell. and soon he withdrew to an- other room. I saw him regarding me later with a look of intense dislike and suspicion. I read his mind He be- lieved that if I were out of the way he might win. It was a curious fact. but always he seemed to regard Grey as negligible quantity I felt anger then toward him. not because of his dislike. not because of the injustice that he did me. but because of the greater injustice that he did Alicia.
 That evening was a memorable one in my life, because of the conjunction of persons and events. At so inop- perfume a moment an affair threaten ing some some time came suddenly to head. All the world knows that the blood feud still fingers in the wild mountains that crowd the Eastern part Of our State: in the widest of them all the Rents and the Horners had been lighting throughout the winter, and there had been several deaths. all as- sassinations. I had kept an eye upon the matter. expecting the local author 1ties to cope with it. but fearing that