The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-10-27
Copyright, 1912, By Bobbs- Merrill Co.
CHAPTER xxx.
Illustrated By Laurs. Stout
In the Rain.

In the Rain.
Shirley stood looking out at the
rain. 1t was falling in no steady
iownpour which held forth promise
Of ending, but with gentle constancy
that gave the hills a look Of sudden
discomfort and made disconsolate
miry pools by. the roadside. The
clouds were not too thick, however, to
let through a dismal gray brightness
that shone on the foliage and touched
with glistening lines of high-light the
iraggled tufts of the soaked blue
grass. Now and then, across the drip
ping fields, fraying skeins of mist wan
dered, to lie curdled in the flooded
hollows where, here and there, cattle
stood lowing at intervals in a mourn
tul key
'~'~~~- bod hncono i~oroe~tbr>
TO her. She was sick Of trying to
read, sick. of the endless pacings and
purposeless invention of needless
tasks. She wanted movement, the
cobwebby mist about her knees, the
wet rain In her face. She ran upstairs
and came down clad in close scarlet
Jersey, with leather CATERS and soft
hat
Emmaline saw her thus accoutered
with disapproval. "Lawdy-mercy,
chile!" she urged; you amt goin'
out? It's rainin' cats en- dawgs!"
I'm neither sugar nor salt, Emma
line" responded Shirley listlessly,
dragging on her rain-coat, "and the
walk will do me good"
On the sopping lawn she glanced
up at her mothers window. Since the
night of the ball her own panging self
Consciousness had overlaid the fine
and sensitive association between
them. She had been full of horrible
feeling that her face must betray her
and the cause of her loss of spirits
be guessed
Her mother, had, in fact, been
troubled by this, but was far from
guessing the truth. A somewhat long
lndisposition had followed her first
sight of Valiant, and she had not
witnessed the tournament. She had
hung upon Shirley's description of 1t,
however, with an excited interest that
the other was later to translate in
the light of her own discovery. If the
thought had fitted to her that fate
might hold something deeper than
friendship in Shirley's acquaintance
with Valiant, it had been of the
Vaguest. His choice of her as Queen
Of Beauty had seemed natural hon.
age to that swift and unf1inching act
Of hers which had saved mis- life.
vious explanation of Shirley's altered
demeanor. Perhaps it's Chilly Lusk,"
she had said to herself Have they
had a foolish quarrel, l wonder? All,
well, In her own time she will tell
me-"
There was some relief to Shirley's
overcharged feelings in the very dis
comfort of the drenched weather: the
sucking pull of the wet clay on her
boots and the f1irt of the drops on her
cheeks and hair. She thrust her dog
Bkin gloves into her pocket and held
her arms outstretched to let the wind
blow through her fingers. The mois-
ture chung in damp wreaths to her
hair and rolled In great drops down
her coat as she went.
The widest, most secluded walks
had always drawn her most and she
lnstinctively chose one of these today.
It was the road whereon squatted Mad
Anthony's whitewasked cabin. "Dah's
er man gwine look in dem eyes, honey,
en- gwine make 'em cry en- cry" She
had forgotten the incident of that day,
when he had read her fortune, but
now the quavering prophecy came
back to her with shivering sense OF
reality. "Fo' dah's fab en- she ain.