The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1916-04-20
CHAPTER III.
CoUNTERPLAYS.

The girl had been very silent, though
nothlng better than her silence had
been needed to confirm Kilrain in the
shock OF his disappointment in her.
L would never have dreamed it of
you, Jess" he groaned. 81 v would
me So"
For the first time Their Jess made a
sound She laughed, a bitter thread in
the laughter catching her fathers no.
tice.
No, you never would a dreamed It.
father, if you hadn't been put to sleep
with a burr on your mattress. That's
Aunt Agnes doin's. Some peoples SO
ieaded dewn with goodness that the
FAD In EN- floats on top, like cream.
~ n told you was ont here to meet
glass Cardross, an you swallowed 1t!
Yeu'l have to cough up a lie then.
father"
weight seemed to have slipped from his
heatt, Il heard"
You heard a horse %gallopin'. So did
you'd "a heard me talkin' to the man
ridin' that horse. That amt sayin' it
was Glass Cardross. Go look in your
stable, father, an see whose horse is
missin'. An, talkin' bout dreamin',"
n the citizen in the exercise of a
Jess went on, Il never would "a
dreamed, father, that Aunt Agnes
osuia throw sand in your eyes an make
yeu think 1t was a thunder Storm
She could not see Kilrain's abasbed
smile.
I'm feared she lone xactly that" he
Jess" -
ooh, sure!" laughed Jess, "she
means well when she gives us rhubarb
pies, but If you eat EN- you wish Won
hadn't. Meanin' well an dein, well
! n always the same-specially when
the meanin' piisons you.''
I'm sorry, Jess"
Som I, father. 'Tain't good to be
thought bad Of"
Klrain was silent.
indeed, his mind was not at ease.
There still remained the matter of Jess
intimacy with Cardross. He said no
more upon 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.
Sitting by her open window, she
seemed to wait, and while she waited
Jess kllrain's thoughts We're 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
Sass Cardross. Some indefinable
blight was upon it's bloom. Somethinp
acned in the joy of her heart. too vague
TO DC unhappiness, yet, like a baser al
10y in pure gold, subtly changing it's
color. 80
1t was something which made the
girl long this night for the mother she
never known. Jess Kilrain had
grown up a mans All her life
she mad been among men-among them
yet apart, as the woman must ever be.
IL mad made her unusually self reliant.
1t had left her strangely alone.
indeed, for some days past the girls
mind a been wavering on the point
of speaking to her father Of her love
for Cardross; but intuition. telling her
that he would not be in sympathy with
that love, had helped to prevent her
doing so.
The growing opposition toward
Cardross in all those about her on the
Loop had, while stimulating her loy-
atty to her lover, made her even more
inclined to be reticent. Her fathers
action this night in rebuking her so
sternly for what he had 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 than that of either hearing or
sight, compounded of both, made her
aware that she had heard a sound:
that she saw al indistinguishable blur
upon the gray darkness-a blur that
moved silently, furtively; hat gave
her an uneasy feeling Of being seen
herself far more clearly than she could
see.