Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-06-18

thought had fitted to her that fat
might hold something deeper tina.
friendship in Shirley's ac~qaaintanc
with Valiant, 1t had been of tn
vaguest. His choice of her as Queer
of Beauty had seemed a natural HON
age to that swift and unfinching &C
of hers which had saved his life
There was in her mind a more oh
vious explanation of Shirley's altered
demeanor. Perhaps it's Chilly Lusk,
she had said to herself. Have the!
had a foolish quarrel, l wonder? All
well, In her own time she will tel
me-"
-
There was some relief to Shirley:
overcharged feelings in the very dis
comfort of the drenched weather: the
sucking pull of the wet clay on heI
boots and the 1irt 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.
lure 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 whereon squatted Mad
Anthony's whitewashed cabin. "Dah's
er maj 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 %qnavering prophecy came
back to her with a shivering sense of
reality. "Fo' dah's fab en- she ain
afeah'd, en- dah's watah en- she ain
afeah'd. Els de thing whut eat de
ha'at outen de breas'-dat whut she
afeah'd of" If it were only fire and
water that threatened her!
She struck her hands together with
an in~articulate 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 mem
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! No matter how much
you love him, you can't! His father
deliberately ruined your mothers life
own mother! It's bad enough
to love him-you can't help that. But
you a 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 e him. Not If it breaks
your heart-as your mothers heart
was broken!"
She had turned into an unbeaten
way that ambled from the road
through a track of tall oaks and pines.
scarce o than a bridle-path, wind
ng aimlessly through bracken-strewn
SO dense that even the wild
'oses had not found them. In her
hurts she had always fed to
he companionship Of the trees. She
known them every one-the black
and pale dogwood and gnarled
hickory, the prickly-balled button
yood," the lowly mulberry and the
majestic red oak and walnut. They
lad seemed friendly and plying u
elors, standing about her with arms
Now, with the rain weep-
ng in soughing gusts through them.
hey offered her no comfort. She sud-
lenly threw herself face down on the
oaked moss
"Oh, Cod" she cried. Il love him
o! And | had only that one evening.
t doesn't seem just. If l could only
ave him, and suffer some other way!
les suffering, too, and 1t isn't our
We neither Of us harmed any,.
ne! He isn't responsible for what
Is father did-why, he hardly knew
i'm! oh, God, why must it be SO
ard for us? Millions Of other people
ove each other and nothing separates
hem like this!"
Shirley's warm breath made a little
og against the star-eyed moss. She
'as scarcely conscious of her wet and
clothing, and the soaked
trands Of her hair. She was so
trapped in her desolation that she no
niger heard the sound of the perse.
ering rain and the wet swishing Of
ne bushes-parting now to a hurried
that fell almost without sound on
1e spongy forest soil. She started
p suddenly to see Valiant before her.
He was in a somewhat battered
'alking suit Of brown khaki, with a
belt and a felt hat whose brim
lift with the wet, was curved down