The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1914-06-18


troubled by this, but was far froI
guessing the truth. A somewhat lon
indisposition had followed her frs
sight OF Valiant, and she had no
Witnessed the tournament She ha
hung upon Shirley's description of il
however, with an excited interest tina
the other was later to translate II
the light Of her own discovery. If tn
thought had fitted to her that fat,
might hold something deeper thai
friendship in Shirley's acquaintanc,
with Valiant, 1t had been of thu
vaguest. His choice OF her as Queer
OF Beauty had seemed a natural HON
age to that swift and unfiinching &C
of hers which had saved his life
There was in her mind a more oh
vious explanation of Shirleys altered
demeanor. Perhaps it's Chilly Lusk,
she had said to herself Have they
had 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 fiirt of the drops on her
cheeks and hair She thrust her dog
skin 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
instinctively chose one of these today
1t was the road wherein squatted Mad
Anthony's whitewashed cabin. "Dahs
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' dahs fab en- she aim
afeah'd, en- dah's watah en- she ain
afeah'd. Els de thing whut eat de
haat outen de breas'-dat whut she
afeah'd off" If it were only fire and
water that threatened her!
She struck her hands together with
an inarticulate cry. She remembered
the laugh in Valiant's eyes as they had
planted the roses, the characteristic
gesture with which he tossed the wav-
ing hair from his forehead--how she
had named the ducks and the pea
cock and chosen the spots for his
flowers; and she smiled for such men,
cries, even in the stabbing knowledge
that these dear trivial things could
mean nothing to her in the future.
She tried to realize that he was gone
from her life, that he was the one
man on earth whom to marry would
be to strike to the heart her love
and loyalty to her mother, and she
said this over and over to herself in
varying phrases:
you can't! Nc matter how much
you love him, you can't! His father
deliberately ruined your mothers life
your own mother! It's bad enough
10 love him-you can't help that But
you can help marrying him. You
would hate yourself. You can never
Kiss him again, or feel his arms around
you. You can't touch his hand. You
mustn't even see him. Not if it breaks
'our heart-as your mothers heart |
vas broken!"
She had turned into an unbeaten
way that ambled from the road |
through track of tall oaks and pines,
scarce more than bridle-path, wind |
ng aimlessly through bracken-strewn
lepths so dense that even the Wild
oses had not found them. In her
hildish hurts she had always fled to
ad known them every one-the black
UNI and pale dogwood and gnarled
ickory, the prickly-balled button
sood," the lowly mulberry and the
majestic red oak and walnut. They
ad seemed friendly and plying coun-
elors, standing about her with arms
ltertwined. Now, with the rain weep
lg in soughing gusts through them,
hey offered her no comfort. She sud-
emily threw herself face down on the
baked moss.
ooh, God!" she cried. II love him
D! And had only that one evening.
doesn't seem just. If | could only
ave him. and suffer some other way!
les suffering, too, and it isn't our
lultl We neither of us harmed any
ne! He isn't responsible for what
Is father did-why, he hardly knew
lml oh. God, why must ii be so
ard for us? Millions of other people
we each other and nothing separates
lem like thisl"
Shirley's warm breath made a little
e against the star>eyed moss. She
as scarcely conscious of her wet and
inging clothing. and the soaked :
rands of her hair. She was SO
raped in her desolation that she no
niger heard the sound of the perse-
ering rain and the wet swishing OF
lie bushes-parting now to hurried
ep that fell almost without sound on
10 spongy forest soil. She started
suddenly to see Valiant before her.
He was in somewhat battered
alking suit of brown khaki, with a
ather belt and felt hat whose brim,
III with the wet, was curved down