The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1914-07-25

She did not care to put the woolfolks
on exhibition again that day. She
must convey her father home as best
she could. She would leave her wheel
In the office and drive the pony herself.
Her city training had furnished no op-
~portunities to learn the fine art Of driv-
ing, and 1t was not without frightened
nerves that she came to this determine
ton.
Fortunately, she consoled herself. the
road was plain. and the Maxwell pony
was not only gentle. but astute. But
for the fresh shame Of inviting a
strangers mirth over her fathers fatu-
GUS babblings she would have hired
some one to drive the pony and follow
ed on her wheel.
As 1t was. to whom could she turn
for help? With a desolate sense of
friendlessness she made her prepara-
fraught with terrors that her over
wrought nerves magnified many times.
Having aroused her father 20 a sense
Of modified responsibility for his own
movements, she cajoled him into the
cart and got under Roadway with a
general sensation that it would not
much matter II the pony should take
it into his head to walk into the Mis-
sissippi river with the whole business.
ed from the enveloping discomfort lay
In the thought that no eye but the all
seeing One witnessed her departure
with the bent figure of her father
crouching at her side In semiconscious-
ness Of his abasement and her wretch
edness. That was as she would
have 1t.
ed village street in cheerful haste to
reach the end of a very long day and
his corncrib. Ora would have felt re-
assured IL she could have Known what
a superfluity reins or whip were at that
juncture. She handled both with the
energy of ignorance. In her impa-
thence to reach home there was no
thought for herself.
She felt nothing but a divine pity for
the crouching figure by her side. Poor
old man, so harassed so Inundated, so
utterly alone on his native heath small
wonder he had cast about for oblivion.
A great wave Of bitterness swept over
her soul. She was tempted to lay this
whole miserable business at her Aunt
Sheldon's door. But for her frozen at
titude toward her father. he might
have escaped this last greatest degra-
dation of all.
She had not known herself how
deeply the iron had entered his soul
until in the moment Of recognizing his
cousin Frances he had poured out all
his pent up bitterness at her mothers
hardness of heart. She was sorry that
gentle little Miss Frankie's head should
have been the one upon which his walls
of wrath had been emptied, but then
what was there in connection with this
unhappy day that she was not sorry
for?
Would Miss frankie entertain the
home circle with a description of her
reunion with her cousin Orrick? There
were people who could extract amuse-
ment from such happenings. She
promptly r%epudiated the unworthy
thought and recalled her cousins fare
well kiss and the tenderness of the
tones in her "You brave dear" There
was nothing of scorn in it for the
transgressor; a world of tender pity
for herself.
With filial loyalty Ora had defended
the transgressor. 1T is his first lapse.
In all my foreboding such a possibility
has never presented itself. He has
waxed reckless under accommodating
trouble. You have all been cruel to
him. You have left him to stand ut
terly alone. 1t has cut deeper than
ever l knew"
II will come again." Miss frankie
had answered pointlessly and had hur-
ried out of the office too soon to catch
Ora's quick apology.
And after her going Ora had closed
the blinds to her Office window and
hung her office slate with out writ
ten big upon it ON the door knob and
in seclusion and despair settled herself
to wait for the coming of the darkness
behind which she could hide her
shame.
Her last reconnoiter before careful
" guiding her fathers trembling foot
steps from the Office to the cart had
shown her a struggling row of closed
shops, a SCARED and saddleless plan
tation mule nibbling a tree box in
front of the tavern, two dogs snarling
over a bone in the dusty main street
opd tho NTayUaIl DODv M with
bowed head before her office door.
wondering doubtless what this long
delayed homing meant.
What it did not show her was the
figure of a man standing inside the
unlighted vestibule to the Blakeville
Banner Office watching her move
ments. The man was her natural enc
my-the interloper-but as he stood in
the gloom of the unlighted doorway