Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-12-20

she said. He noticed that she did not
look directly at him, and that her
face was as pallid as her hair.
"Thank you" said John Valiant,
and resumed his place on the lower
step.
Shirley, who had again seated her.
self, suddenly laughed. and pointed
to the book which lay between them.
Imagine what we were doing, dearest!
We were reading Lucille together
She saw the other vince, and the
deep dark eyes lifted, as If under COM
pulsion. from the book-cover to Vail
ants face. He was startled by Shir-
leys cry and the sudden limp uncon-
scious settling-back into the cushions
of the fragile form.
CHAPTER XVIII
Night.
A quicker breeze was stirring as
John Valiant went back along the Red
Road. It brushed the fraying clouds
from the sky, leaving it pale gray.
blue, sprinkled with wan stars. He
had waited in the garden at Rosewood
till Shirley, aided by Emmaline and
with Ranston's anxious face lowering
in the background. having performed
those gentle Offices which woman's
fainting spell requires. had come to
reassure him and to say good night.
The road seemed no longer dark; 1t
swan before him now in a soft winged
mistiness with here and there an &C.
casional cedar thrusting grotesquely
above huddled cobble-wall and black
lined rail-fence. As he went, her form
swan before him. The texture of each
shadowy bush seemed that gauzy
drapery. sprayed with lilies-of-the-
valley, and the leaves syllabled her
name in cautious whispers. That
brief touch of her, when he had
caught her in his arms, fingered, as the
memory Of the harp music on his IN
ner ear, pricking his senses like fine
musk, a thing Of soft new pulses fash
ing over him like spurts of vapor.
AS he threw off his coat In the bed
room he had chosen for his own, he
felt the hard corner of the Lucille IN
the pocket, and drawing it out, laid 1t
on the table by the bedside. He
seemed to feel again the tingle OF his
cheek where a curling strand Of her
coppery hair sprung against 1t when
her head had bent beside his own to
read the marked lines. BY now per-
hans that riotous crown was all I'M
bound and falling redly about her
shoulders, those shoulders no longer
peeping from a weave of lines, Dut
draped in virginia. white. Perhaps she
knelt now by her silkcovered bed,
warming the coverlid with her breast
her down bent face above her lock"
palms. What did she pray for. he
wondered. AS child, his own pray
ers had been comprehensive ones
Even the savages who lived at Wish
ing-House and their innumerable Off
spring had been regularly included IN
those petitions.
When he had undresesd he sat an
hour in the candle blaze, dressing
gown thrown over his shoulders, striv-
ing vainly to recreate that evening
call to remember her every word ana
look and movement For a breath her
face would flush SUDDENLY before him.
like live thing: the it would mys-
lteriouslv fade and elude him, though
he clenched his hands on the arms OF
his chair in the fierce mental effort TO
recall II Only the intense blue of her
ewes. the tawny sweep OF her hair
thase and the touch of her. the con-
seriousness Of her warm and VIVID
fragrance, remained ~ wrap an MS
senses in a mist woven Of gold and
fire.
Shirley meanwhile, had sat some
time beside her mothers bed, leaning
from white chintz-covered CHAIR her
anxiety only partially allayed by rea-
surances, now and then STOPPING 10 lay
her young cheek against the d"'lcatc
arm in it's lacy sleeve or to pass her
hand lovingly up and down it's outline
noting with recurent passion or ten
derness the transparency OF the SKIN
with it's violet veining and the shad'
ows beneath the closed eyes. Emma.
line moving on soft worsted-shod feet
lahout the dim room, at length mad
Whispered:
You 20 tub bald, honey. I stay
with Mis- Judith till she go tub sleep
Eyes, go, Shirley said her mother.
Haven't I any privileges at all? Cant
even faint when feel like it, without
calling out the f1re-brigade? you'll
pamper me to death and heaven knows
II don't need it."
"You won't let me telephone for
Doctor Southall?"
certainly mott"
And you are sure 1t was nothing
but the roses?"
"Why. what else should it be- said
her mother almost peevishly. Il must
really have the arbors thinned out.
On heavy nights it's positively over
towering. Go along now, and we'll
talk about it tomorrow. I can ring
If want anything"
In her own room Shirley undress.
ed thoughtfully. There was between
her and her mother fine tenuous
bond of sympathy and feeling as rare.
perhaps. as it was lovely. She could
not remember when the other had not
lbeen a semi-invalid. and her earliest
Ichildhood recollections were punctua,
ted with the tap Of the little cane.
Tonight's sudden indisposition had
shocked and disturbed her; to faint
at rush of perfume seemed to sug-
gest a growing weakness that was
alarming. Tomorrow, she told herself
she would send Ranston with wagon
load of the roses to the hospital at
Charlottesville.
She slipped on a pink shell-shaded
dressing gown Of slinky silk with a