Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-04-20
CHAPTER III.
COUNTERPIAYS.

The girl had been very silent, though
nothing better than her silence had
Deen needed to confirm Kilrain in the
shock of his disappointment in her.
i would have dreamed it of
you, Jess he groaned. Il never would
a dreamed You would live to deceive
me so"
For the first time then Jess made q
sound. She laughed, a bitter thread il.
the laughter catching her fathers no.
tice.
No, o never would "a dreamed it,
father, If you hadn't been put to sleep
with a burr on our mattress. That's
Aunt Agnes doin's. some PEOPLES so
!oaded down with goodness that the
pad In EN- floats on top, like cream.
SO she told you [ was out here to meet
Blass Cardross, an you swallowed ii,
loull nave to cough up a lie then.
father" ~
weight seemed to have slipped from his
heart, Il heard"
You heard a horse %gallopin'. SO did
l. If you'd -ome just a little farther
you'd a heard M talkin' to the man
ridin' that horse, That amt sayin' il
was Blass Cardross. Go look in YOU
stapie, lather, an see whose horse is
missin'. An, talkin' bout dreamin'"
That the citizen in the exercise Of a
Jess went on, Il never would "a
dreamed, father, that Aunt Agnes
could throw sand in your eyes an make
you think it was a thunder Storm
she could not see Kilrain's abashed
smile.
Tn feared she done xactlv that ha
admltted, but your aunt means we'll
Jess" "e"'
on. sure!" laughed Jess. "She
means we'll when she gives us rhubarb
pies. but if you eat 'em you wish Won
hadn't. Meanin' we'll an DIN Wen
amt always the same-specially when
the meanin' p'isons you"
I'm sorry, Jess"
som |, father. 'Tain't good 10 be
thought bad Of"
kilrain vas silent.
indeed, his mind was not at ease
There still remained the natter of less
intimacy with Cardross. He said no
more pom the subject then, however,
nor did Jess; but when she had gone
on to her room upon reaching the
house she did not get ready for bed.
Slttlns by her open window, she
seemed to wait, and while she waited
Jess kilrain's thoughts were BUSY.
She had told her father the truth,
but not the whole truth. Not even to
herself had she ever told what for some
time intuition had been vainly endeayor-
ing to warn her.
She was not happy in her love for
Blass Cardross. Some indefinable
pilSHl was upon Its bloom, Something
acned in The JOY of her heart. too vague
to be unhappiness, yet, like a baser al
10Y m pure gold, subtly changing It's
color. w.
1t was something which made the
girl long this night for the mother she
had V known. Jess Kilrain had
grown up a mans oma All her life
she had been mons en-amon them
yet apart, as the woman must ever be.
1t a made her unusually self reliant.
1t had left her strangely alone.
Indeed, for some days past the girls
mine had been Wavering on the point
OF speaking to her father of her love
Tor Cardross; but intuition, telling her
that he would no be in sympathy with
that love. had helped to prevent her
doing SO.
The growing oppposition toward
Cardross in all those about her on the
Loop had, while stimulating her low
atty to her lover, made her even moro
inclined to be reticent. Her fathers
action this night III rcbuking her 50
sterIrly for what he lad supposed had
carried her abroad drove all confidence
back upon her own heart.
The room behind Jess was in total
darkness.
Beyond her window the prairie
stretched an indeterminate SPACE over
hung by the warm stars. A sense
keener Tran that of either hearing or
sight, compounded of both, made her
aware that she had heard a sound.
that she saw an indistinguishabIe blur
upon the gray darkness-a blur that
moved silently, furtively: that gave
her an uneasy feeling of being seen
herself far more clearly than she conl0
see.