Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-16
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR JULY Is. 1911
"You know Mr.. Bent

Lone Tree" he said. @You know Mr.. Bent
has leased it to me-"
ayes, he told me-"
"What else did he tell your"
ooh, l say, Wray," Bent broke in, Il
don't see how that can be any affair Of
yours"
Jeff Wray wrapped his quirt around one
knee and smiled indulgently. doesn't seem
so, does it, Bent?" he said coolly. @But it
really is. You see, Camilla-Miss Irwin and
have been friends long time-as matter
of fact, we're sort of engaged"
"Jeff!' gasped the girl. The calmness of
his effrontery almost if not quite deprived
her of speech. "Even if it we're true, you
must see that it can hardly interest"
II thought that he might like to know.
haven't interfered much between you two;
but I've been thinking about you some.
thought it might be just as we'll that Mr.
Bent understood before he went away"
Camilla started up, stammered, began to
speak, then sank in her chair again.
Bent looked coolly from one to the other
"There seems to be a slight difference of
opinion" he said.
ooh, we're engaged, all right Jeff went
on. "Thats why l thought I'd better tell
you it wouldn't be any use for you to try to
persuade Camilla-that is, Miss Irwin-to
go TO New Ork With you.
Jeff made this surprising statement with
the same ease with which he might have dis
suaded client in an improbable deal. Miss
Irwin became shade paler; Bent shade
darker Such intuition was rather too pre-
else to be pleasant. Neither of them replied,
Bent, because he feared to trust himself
to speak; Camilla, because her tongue re-
fused obedience.
"Oh, I'm a pretty good guesser Camilla
told you she wasn't going, didn't she? l
thought so. You see, that wouldn't have
done at all, because I'd have had to 60 all
the way East to bring her back again. When
we're married, of course"
@Jeff!" The girls voice, found at last,
echoed so shrilly in the bare room that even
Wray was startled into silence. He had not
seemed aware of any indelicacy in his revela-
ton; but each moment added to the bitter
ness of Miss Irwin's awakening. Bent's in
dignity had made her hate herself and de-
spise the man who had offered it. She
thought she saw what kind of wood had
been hidden under his handsome veneer.
She had always known what Jeff was made
of. The fiber was there, tough, strong, and
ugly as ever; but it was not rotten. And in
that hour she learned a new definition of
chiva1ry.
"Jeff, will you be quiet?" But she went
over to him and put her hand on his Shout
der, and her words came slowly and very
distinctly as she looked over Wray's head
into Cortland Bent's eyes. "What Mr..
Wray says is true. l intend to marry him
when he asks me to-"
Bent bowed his head as Jeff rose, the girl S
hand in his.
II reckon that about winds up all your
loose ends around Mesa, don't it, Bent?"
said Jeff cheerfully. @When are you leaving
town."
But Bent by this time had taken his cap
and was gone.
Chapter III. New York
WONDERFUL things happened in the
year that followed. The Lone Tree
was bonanza. Every month added to the
value of the discovery. The incredulous
came, saw, and were conquered, and Mesa
City was a boom town again. Jeff Wray
hadn't a great deal to say in those days
His brain was working overtime upon the
great interlocking scheme of financial enter
prises that was to make him one of the
richest men in the West. He spoke little;
but his face wore a smile that never came
off, and his baby-blue stare was more vacu-
Gus than ever.
I'll