Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-01-29
CHAPTER XXI.
Episode.

Episode.
Fortune had Immediately returned
from the bazaars. And a kind of tor
por blanketed her mind, usually so
fertile and active. For a time the
process of the evolution of thought
was denied her; she tried to think, but
there was an appalling lack of continu-
ity, of broken threads. 1t was like one
of those circumferential railways; she
travelled, but did not get anywhere.
Ryanne had told her too much for his
own sake, but too little for hers. She
sat back in the carriage, inert and
listless, and indeterminedly likened
her condition to driftwood in the ebb
and flow of beach-waves. The color
and commotion Of the streets were
no longer absorbed; it was as if she
were riding through emptiness,
through the unreaiity of dream. She
was oppressed and stifed, too; harb-
niger of storms.
Mechanically she dismissed the car
riage at the hotel, mechanically she
went to her room, and in this semi
and there Georges wish found her,
futilely. Oh, there was one thing
clear, clear as the sky outside. All
was not right; something was wrong;
and this wrong upon one side con-
cerned her mother, her uncle and
Ryanne, and upon the other side, Mr..
Jones. Think and think as she might,
her endeavors gave her no single illu-
mination. Four blind walls surround
ed her. The United Romance and Ad-
venture company-there could not pos
sibly be such thing in existence; it
was jest of Ryanne's to cover up
something far more serious.
She pressed her eyes with a hand.
They ached duly, the dull pain of be-
wilderment, which these days recur-
red with frequency. A sense of time
was lacking; for luncheon hour came
and passed without her being definite
ly aware of it. This in itself was a
puzzle. A jaunt, such as she had ia
ken that morning, always keened the
edge of her appetite; and yet, there
was no craving whatever.
Where was her mother? If she
would only come now, the cumulative
doubts of all these months should be
put into speech. They had treated her
as one would treat a child; it was
neither just nor reasonable. If not as
a child, but as one they dared not
trust, then they were afraid of her.
But why? She pressed her hands to-
gether, impotently. Ryanne, clever as
he was, had made slip or two which
he had sought to cover up with jest.
Why should he confess himself to be
rogue unless his tongue had got the
better Of his discretion? If he was a
rogue, why should her mother and her
uncle make use Of him, if not for
roguery's sake? They were fools, fools!
If they had but seen and understood
her as she was, she would have gone
to the bitter end with them, loyalty,
with sealed lips. But no; they had
chosen not to see; and in this had
morally betrayed her. All, it ranked,
and the injustice of it grew from pain
to fury. At that moment, had she
known anything, she certainly would
have denounced them. Of what use
was loyalty, since none of them
sought it in her?
The Major was wiser than he knew
when he spoke of the hundredth dam
ger, the danger unforeseen, the danger
against which they could make no
preparation. And he would have been
first to sense the irony Of it could he
have seen where this danger lay.
Why should they wish the pleasant
young man out Of the way? Why
should Ryanne wish to inveigle him
into the hands Of this man Mahomed?
Was it merely self-preservation, or
something deeper, more sinister?
Think! Why couldn't she think Of
something? It was only little pleas
ure trip to Cairo, they had told her,
and when she had asked to go along,
they seemed willing enough. But they
had come to this hotel, when formerly
they had always put up at Shep-
heard's. And here again the question
why? Was it because Mr.. Jones was
staying here? She liked him. what lit
tie she had seen of him. He was out
of an altogether different world than
that to which she was accustomed. He
was neither insanely mad over cards
nor a social idler. He was a young
man with a real interest in life, a
worker, Notwithstanding that he was
reputed to be independently rich. And
her mother had once borrowed money
OF him, never intending to pay it back
The shame of it, And whv .Shnl'lA Oh