Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1909-02-12
CHAPTER TX.

The morning which broke through the
defenses of Breen, and crumpled the dear
est purpose of Constable, also drew Miss
Stansbury into the vortex of intense emo
tions. Whatever dominant traits and i'm
pulses she had inherited from her mother,
it had been her self-training to repress.
Ample opportunity had been afforded her
to note in her mother the career of an in
domitable mistress of affairs. The result
of her observations was positive distaste
for stiffness of views in any sphere, and
a conviction that the display of master
fitness in woman did not make for wom-
ans happiness.
As a girl, it had not occurred to Lara
to exert an authority counter to her
mothers. When she became young wom-
an she carefully avoided any extremity
which might lead to the breaking of
either her own or the more visible will
of the house.
Now, in the midst of painful develop
ments, it was borne home to Lara that
she had progressed too far in the way of
amiability; that she had uncOnsciously
outstripped her intention, and passed into
the boundaries of self-effacement. In the
crisis of the newspaper revelations, she
had followed her mothers initiative with
out question. The creature of indecisions
that she had become grew more and more
odious to her as the forenoon passed, and
in her contrition she realized that the
man whose first wish was to spare her
from harm had been repaid with lack of
courtesy and a greater lack of courage.
Nothing that she had said or done, 1t
seemed to her now, carried the stamina of
decision. She had implored him not to
speak; she had run from him, like a
frightened child to her mother, when he
had told his love and begged her to seek
safety aboard his ship. In none of her
dealings had she shown the strong wom-
anhood which marked her ideals; and in
singular contrast stood out his gracious
| ness and patience. The thousand little
things in which she had subserved her
own inclinations to the maternal will had
dulled the delicate point of personality,
without which a man cannot stand val
iantly through the crux of harsh days.
1t was all plain now, so hideously plain.
The chief of the acts she regretted had
to do with the morning itself. What
manner of friendship" was this which
accepted as authoritative the testimony
of a newspapers suspicions7 She had
done more than this, in handing Constable
the document that witnessed against him,
and shutting the door upon his possible
defense. There was an added poignancy
in the knowledge that her mother would
not have thus used one of her favorites.
Her distaste for the American caused
| Mrs. Stansbury so readily to accept news
| A.s go L..
ment. As II such thoughts of wretched-
ness were not sufficient to start tears of
vexation, Lara's mind finally added to the
inventory Of its miseries by reverting to
her conversation with Constable in the
carriage on the day of his arrival. How
she had berated the essayist for declar-
ing that the stuff of friendship stirred not
womankindl How vigorously he had
agreed with herl
She sought her own room when the tn.
multi mounted to the point of tears Pres.
emily she went to the door and locked it.
for the inevitable thought had come. What
did the name of Peter Constable mean t.
her? She had felt his strength. Long
ago she had dreamed of such strength anC
put the dream away. Whether or not b.
, was to be the conqueror, she knew tina
) mastery like his could rouse her heart
She was evading the substance Of tn
= question. Before the mirror she frowne,
9 severely at the Lara there.
' "Tsll me this" said the woman, do
i. want him to go away7"
"No. no r. said the image.
r "No," repeated the woman; met II
r be innocent"
Z The image scowled at her conaervstlru
"You deserve to suffer. You sent hir
Ie away without 1.-THE of your trust, with
p out . morsel of your mercy"