Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-04-19
CHAPTER III.
COUNTERPLAYs.

The girl had been very silent, though
nothing better than her silence had
peen needed to confirm Kilrain in the
shock of his disappointment in her.
Il would eve have dreamed it of
you, JESS" he groaned. II never would
me so"
Fol the first time then Jess made a
sound. She laughed, a bitter thread in
the laughter catching her fathers no.
tice. ~
No. You never would "a dreamed ii.
father, If you hadn't been put to sleep
WIN a purr on your mattress. That's
loaded down with goodness thai the
PAD IN EN- floats on top, like cream.
50 she told you l was out here to meet
Blass C~ardross, an you swallowed it!
1oull nave to cough up a lie then.
father" e
Weight seemed to have slipped from his
You heard a horse gallopin'. So did
l. # you'd come just a little farther
you'd a heard me talkin' to the man
rldin that horse. That amt sayin' II
was Blass Cardross. Go look in yo,1r
stable. father, an see whose horse is
missin,. An, talkin' bout dreamin',"
Jess went on. Il never would "a;
dreamed father, that Aunt Agnes
could throw sand in your eyes am make
you think 1t was a thunder storm"
smile. aOas'eo
Tn feared she done xactly that" he
admitted, but your aunt means well
Jess" ~ "en'
Oh, sure!" laughed Jess. "She
means we'll when she gives us rhubarh
pies. but if you eat 'em YOU wish vo,,
hadn't. Meanin' we'll an dom Wen
amt always the same-specially when
the meanin' p'isons YOU"
I'm sorry, Jess"
Som 1, father. 'Tain't good to be
thought bad Of" ~
Kilrain 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 kilrain's thoughts were busy.
She had told her father the truth,
but not the whole truth. Not even to
time intuition had been vainly endeayor-
ing to warn her.
She was not happy in her love for
blight was upon its bloom, Sometime
acned in the joy of her heart, too q
to be unhappiness, yet. like a baser all
10y In pure gold. subtly changing it's
color. -"
1t was something which made the
girl long this night for the mother she
had v known. Jess Kilrain had
grown up a mans woman. All her life
she had been among men-among them
YET apart, as the oma must ever be.
IL nad MADE her unusually self reliant.
It had left her strangely alone.
Indeed. Tor some days past the girls
mind had 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 or the
Loop had, while stimulating her low
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 ali confidence
back upon her own heart.
The room behind Jess was in tota,
darkness.
Beyond her window the prairie
stretched an indeterminate space over
hung by the warm stars. A sense
keener han that Of either hearing m
sight, compounded OF both, made her
aware that she had heard a ound:
that she saw an indistinguishable Blur
upon the gray darkness blur that
moved silently. furtively: that gave
her an uneasy feeling Of being seen
herself Tar more clearly than she could
. I.