The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-05-02

ouCe tel me tQclI at some carrier
| time of your life you went to Van
couver?"
She raised her eyes to his sudden
ly. Their pale pupils, as always
when she was deeply moved, seemed
to widen and deepen. Her suspi-
| ciously red lips opened slightly, and
her breath changed it's cadence.
For only a few months" she said
! with apparent nonchalance. 'Why?"
"Oh, nothing" said Jem slowly. 81
| was only wondering whether you ever
came across place called Golden
| Ridge?"
Never" she answered, in full
| firm voice, as if relieved that she
could reply SO safely. "Is that where
Miss Wilmot comes frorn?"
YES" said Jem. 81 believe she
wants to sell her place. I was WON
dering if you knew what kind Of
land it was
81 perfectly hated it." said she.
But can't tell you anything about
it, such as you would want to know.
There is so society, and no civiliza-
ton, that's all I remember about it.
And so Miss wilmot is not going
back ?'
$50 she says. My aunt has taken
to her wonderfully" Fr
That's q good thing for you; it
leaves you more freedom"
Eyes"
"Does it never now occur to you
to employ it in coming to see us?"
'I don't want Umfraville always
under my feet"
She laughed little tremulous
laugh. Was it possible that after all
he was Jealous. deep down-her queer,
surly, impassive Jem?
eff you will come" she said softly,
81 will see that he is not under your
feet"
Thanks" said Jem, "but I would
in no way interfere with your amuse-
ments.''
He spoke with a sudden change of
intonation-a quick drawing of him
self upright start to attention.
and stopped one moment with a
sharp Kissing intake g, breath, before
dashing away from her, across the
keep and up the stairs at the utmost
possible speed.
Vernon had been chasing two of
the small Buns round and round, in
and out. Iazily Jem had been
watching the pursuit, while he talked
to Laura against the wall. Finally,
the children ran up the ruined stair
way, Vernon after them, and, upon
reaching the broken edge at the top,
they turned away to the left, swarm
ed up the outer wall, and crawled
along 1T, to a. point beyond the edge
Of the stairs. Vernon followed, with
all due caution. The boys, we'll know
ing the ms and outs of the place, at
the end of an afternoons play, low
cred themselves through hole\down
to one of the tiny chambers in the
thickness of the wall, which occurred |
at frequent intervals. They disap-
peared, and Vernon, looking in, hest
tated to follow, being good deal
heavier than they, who had dropped |
to the floor, where they were dancing
and defying her.
In her excitement and haste, she |
forgot that the point to which she |
had crawled upon the wall, was be- |
yond the point to which the broken |
staircase extended, and that there
was nothing between her feet and |
the ground. Without looking round. |
she began to lower herself, back |
wards, her hands firmly gripping a |
projecting piece of Stone and mortar, |
expecting every moment to feel the |
stairs under her feet.
A startled cry from group watch
ing her from below made her look
round over her shoulder. and the
shock of finding herself hanging over
space was such as to almost cause her
to- fall
She was overswept by sudden fear,
IOT she COuIu HOL n6lp neFSeH. Sne
was holding on for dear life, and |
dared not let go even with one hand |
to lever herself up again upon the
sloping broken bit of wall whereto
she chung. The stair-edge was not
far away on her left, but to her
frightened eyes it might as we'll have
been a mile removed.
In the wonderful quickening of
thought which comes with such a
crises, she pictured the letting 60
the horror of the moment when she
would sink through space, as now and |
again one does in nightmare dreams.
And she thought that here would be
a way of settling her difficulty about
Lionel, and saw, as if by a great IL
that she did not in the
least desire such a solution as this.
And then her mind made blind
forward, a movement that
was not attained by any conscious
but by some impulse deep,
down in her heart: and she shrieked
out ,"Jem!'
1t seen,ed to her hardly a moment
before he was there, creeping along
the wall to where she hung.