Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-08-11

of a fight as she had put up with the
people who had taken her in
she had put up the hardest with
Clara. Yet of them all Clara was the
only one she had failed to capture.
Clara was always there in the middle
of her affairs, but surveying them
from a distance, and Flora's struggle
with her had resolved itself into the
attempt to keep her from seeing too
much, from seeing more than she her
self saw.
Their dubious intimacy had created
for Flora a special sort of loneliness
"a loneliness which lacked the Sc
curity of solitude; and it was partly
as an escape from this that she had
accepted Harry Cressy. By herself
she could never have escaped. The
initiative was not hers. But he had
presented himself, he had insisted,
had overruled her objections, had
captured her before she knew wheth-
er she wanted 1t or not-and held
her now, fascinated by his very sue
cess in capturing her, and by his beau
tiful ruddy masculinity. She did not
ask herself whether women eve mar
ried for greater reasons than these.
She only wondered sometimes If he
did not stand out more brilliantly
against Clara and the others than he
intrinsically was. But these moments
when she was obliged to defend him
to herself were always when he was
not with her. Even in the dusky car
.iage she had been as aware OF the
splendor of his attraction as now
when they had stopped between the
high lamps Of the club entrance, and
she saw clearly the broad lines of his
shoulders and the stoop Of his square
set head as he stepped s~wingingly to
the pavement. After all, she ought to
be glad to think that he was going to
stand up as tall and protectingly be-
between her and the world, as now
he did between her and the press of
people which, like a tide of water,
swept them forward down the hall,
sucked them back in its eddy, and
finally cast them, rufled like birds
that have ridden a storm, on the
more generous space of the wide, up
ward stair.
From here, looking down on the
current sweeping past them, the little
islands of black coats seemed fairly
drowned in the feminine sea around
them-the flow of white, of pale blue
and rose, and the high chatter, like G
cage of birds, that for the evening
held possession.
Ladies' Night" Harry Cress!
mopped his flushed face. TITS aw
full"
Flora laughed in the ~effervescenc
; of her spirits. She wanted to know
teasingly, as they mounted, If thi
we're why he had brought two NOR
to add to the lot. He only looked a
her, with his short note of laughte
that made her keenly conscious of hi
7 right to be proud of her. She wa
r proud of herself, inasmuch as heI
self was shown in the long trail o
daring blue her gown made up tn
stair, and the powdery blue of tn
aigrette that shivered in her bright
/ soft puffs and curls-proud that he
$ daring, as it appeared in these things
t was still discriminating enough t
make her right.
She could recall a time when sh
S had not even been quite sure of he
clothes. Not Clara's subdued rust
e at her side could make her dout
them now; but her security was sti
6 recent enough to be sometimes CO..
n scious of itself. 1t was so short
time since all these talking group
# that made a parsonage Of her, ha
had the power to put her quite out
s. countenance. The women who crane
over their shoulders to speak to her
J. how hard she had had to work
% make them see her at all!
a And tonight it was not the pictul
t, exhibition, nor the function itse
E. that elated her, but the fancy she ht
ID as she looked over the moving ma
IS below her that the browning excit
rs ment of the day, the vanishing my
IS terry, lowered over them all. 1t WI
;e fantastic, but it persisted; for hf
ID not the Chatworth ring itself prov
Id that the most ordinary appearan'
ly might cover unimagined wonder
OF Which of those bland, satisfied fac
it might not change ~shockingly at t
le whisper "Chatworth" in it's ear? s
he wanted to confide the naughty thong
to Harry, But no, he wasn't the OF
d. If Harry were apprehensive OF ar
ch thing at all it was only of bel
wv caught in too hot a crush. He 81
tn no possibilities in the mob below
en- cept boredom. He saw no possit
adj tiles in the evening but his convt
ce tional duty; and Flora could read
his W his intention of getti
through that as comfortably as p,
adj sible. His suggestion that they ha
N. a look at the pictures brought the t
ial women's eyes together in a rare glei
n of mutual mirth. They knew he s.
vn pected that the picture gallery wol
n. be the emptiest place in the eli
+lv since to have a look at the pictul
ba was what they were all supposed
no be there for.
81 CTo BE CoNTINUEn)
VI
Nn.L I.A.n.l lM