Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1917-07-19
CHAPTER XVII.
Danger.


III
Danger.
When she tiptoed into her uncle'i
soom at midnight, Mans heart beat a!
tho wings Of a bird beat from tn,
Aroken door of a cage into Il forbidden
sky Of happiness. She had left ths
xoom a girl; she returned a oman
Sleep she did not expect or even ask
fur; the night was all too short te
SAnk Of those tense, fearful moments
that had pledged her to her lover
When the anxieties Of her situation
overwhelmed her. as they would again
and again, she felt herself in the arms
1T this strange, resolute man whom all
her own hated and whom she knew she
already loved beyond all power to put
away. In her heart, she had tried this
sn0re than once-she knew she could
not, would not, eve do it, or even
try to d04it, again.
She rei0iced in his love. She trusted.
When he spoke she believed this man
whom no n around her would be-
nece: and she. who never had believed
what other men agowed, and who de
vested their avowals, believed De
Spain. aud secretly, guiltily. slowed IN
every word of his devotion aud
hreatied faint In its every caress.
Night could hardly come fast enough,
after the next long day. A hundred
ffEnes during that day she reminded
herself, while the slow. majestic sun
*silune simmering on the hot desert,
ahat she had promised to steal out into
the grounds the minute darkness fell
Inc would be waiting. A hundred times
Ss the long afternoon Nan looked into
the cioudless western sky and with
quay, eager hands would have pushed
the tagging orb on its course that she
might sooner give herself into the
siaruas where she felt her place SO sure,
aaer honor safe, her helplessness SO pro-
tested, herself so loved.
How her cheeks burned after supper
~Srtaen she asked her uncle for leave to
post a letter downtown! How breath
zess with apprehension she halted as
ts4ks Spain stepped from the shadow of
fiEa trees and drew her UNFORTUNATELY
z2efleath them for the kiss that had
Burned on her troubled lips all day !!
How, girl-like, knowing his caresses
syert. all her own--knowfng she could
ut an instant call forth enough to
smother her-she tyrannized his i'm
%xprtuning, and like n lovely miser,
<hoardel her responsiveness under calm
eye anil laconic whispers until, when
she did give back his eagerness, she
4anade his senses reel.
How dgeninily she listened to every
ssord he let fall In his %outpouring of
devotion how gravely she put up her
hand TO restrain his busy intrusion,
and asked if he knew that no man in
the world. least of all her fierce and
sS,urIy cousin, had ever touched her lips
until he himself forced Il kiss on them
the night before. "And now" She
hid her face against his shoulder. ooh,
Henry. how I love you! I'm so
ashamed l couldn't tell you IL 1t weren't
might; I'll look you in the face
again in the daytime"
And when he told her how little he
himself had had to do with, and how
little he knew about girls, ever from
b0yhoOd, how she felgned not to be-
glleve, and believed him still! They
were two children raised In the magic
OF an hour to the supreme height Of
Nfe and dizzy together on Its summit.
Il don't see how you can care for
ssne, Henry. Oh, l mean It," she pro-
tested, holding her head resolutely up.
-..You know who We arc, away Off there
tn the mountains. Everyone hates US.
i suppose they've plenty Of reason to:
we hate everybody else. And why
shouidnt WEI We're ut war with ev.
.exyoue. You know, better than ! DO.
what goes on In the gap. I don't want
To know; / try not to know; Uncle
Duke tries to keep things from me-
that day on Music-I couldn't believe
.sryi meant It at oil. And yet--pm
afraid I liked to try to think You did.
when you looked at me felt rs IL
1vou could zee right through me-"
Condolences never catne to an end.
! And diplomacy came into Its " al.
tpcst at once In De SPANS efforts to
xnprove his relations with the impln-
cable Duke. The day came when Mans
Sncle could be taken home. De Spain
rneut To him . s~oft.spoken emlssary.
n~s. Nroft Altering 10 DrOvide n light