, 1917-03-08
CHAPTER XVI.


going back to his work at the trading
house of Francois Vigo. But he STAYED
there only n week or two before his
loneliness made existence without a
sight of Toinette an existence not to
be endured. He hated the sight of the
ill-smelling store, with its heaps of
green skins. its cracking bundles Of
furs. hated the sight of the cheerful
Hoosiers and French who thronged the
streets of the old capital, and loathed
the wretched Piankeshaw Indians who
slept in the doorway. Suddenly, n
morning, he told old Vigo that he
must leave; and the next day found
him once more in COrydon, where Ike
welcomed him with beaming face.
Still the breach was openl 1t is so
hard for young men and maidens to
lay down their pridel
To Toinette the days were almost
unbearable. David acted like a bear
with a sore head, she thought. 1t was
just what she might have expected,
she told herself. 1t is perfectly silly
to be so big and flinty, she was sure.
David had eve spoken ten words to
her at any one time, since the day he
had knocked everything into a cooked
hat by telling her he loved her. Peo-
pie who loved each other didn't act as
they did, h knew; why, whenever
they had been together she felt as
though something tremendous, some
thing bigger than she was, was in the
very air around and on the point of
exploding. She didn't approve of ex-
plosions, still less of things, nameless
forces, that We're bigger than she was.
When she had talked to David in the
old days it was like talking to the heart
of one of those terrible creatures of
steel, about which Mr.. Livingston had
written her father-that great throb-
being caldron which they fed with logs
and which p%alpitated with fury and
drove Il boat from Pittsburgh to New
Orleans in a month. 1t was bigger
than h was and unmanageable and
1t was not at all her idea of love.
Whenever she thought about 1t, that Is
to say about the atmosphere which was
Immediately and m~ysteriously evolved
out of common day whenever David
and h encountered, her eyes filed
with tears of vexation. AS for being
sorry, that was another matter. If Da-
vid wished to be flint, she was perfect
ly capable of being steel. Yet she
thought about him every day.
Her father, for the first time in her
experience, failed to be of any help to
her. AT home, in New Orleans, she
had gone to him with the story of
each boy who had danced attendance
upon her and he had seen them as she
did and together they had laughed each
cavalier into oblivion; but she found 1t
impossible to discuss this new problem
with him. 1t was no use telling her
father that she was afraid of some-
rue that she had trembled from head
to foot when she felt that the sparks
which flashed back and forth from her
steel and David's Hint were danger
ously near u powSer mine somewhere
inside her, that was her affair and
she would have to drown 1t with her
own contempt as best she might.
Accordingly, the little old gentleman,
who was sincerely troubled by the evil
dent breach between his daughter and
David got small satisfaction from
Toinette when he stuck a cautious fin
ger into the difficulty. There was
nothing wrong and she was perfectly
happy and If David chose to be a
bear with u sore head that vas his
concern and not theirs and Mr.. O'Ban-
non wisely forbore further attempts to
effect Il reconciliation. Ike Blackford,
who remained a stanch friend to each,
was likewise constrained to remain In
troubled silence, he had opened II we'll
meaning mouth to each in turn and
had got no cakes to fill 1t at either
fair.
And Mt last her Happiness" was so
perfect that she resolved to endure IL
no longer.
She waited until she found him alone
in the shop, the little room which had
once meant to him the beginning OF
life's .joyousness and life's hopes and
which was now a prison house whence
ghosts of yesterdays Knocked him with
their memories.
He was about to close its doors for
the day.
Toinette summoned all her strength.
The tower of pride was lettering 1t
can be sent down in ruins 80 easily
when a girl throws down the weapon
of her sex!
81 can't stand 1t any longer, David"
she said breathlessly, Ito see you suf-
fer. know you are suffering, because
I-because because 1t hurts me so u
What u glorious crash the tower
madel