The Prescott daily news., 1918-04-25

month passed.
 During that thirty-day period she re- ceived a brief note from Bill. Just a few lines to say:
 Hit the ranch yesterday, little per son. Looks good to me. Went fishing last night about sundown. Trout were rising fine. Nailed ten-pounder. Woke up this morning at daylight and found a buck deer with two lady friends standing in the middle of the clearing. l loafed few days in Fort George, sort of thinking I might hear from you. Am sending this out by Jake. Will start for the Klappan about day after tomorrow"
 She had not answered his first let ter. She had tried to. But somehow when she tried to set pen to paper the right words would not come. She lacked his facility of expression. There was so much she wanted to say, so little she seemed able to say. As the days passed she felt less sure of her ground less sure that she had not sacrificed something precious to vagary of self, an obsession of her own | ego.
 | And slowly but surely she began to view all the activities of her circle with critical eye. Certain of her friends had become tentative enemies. Kitty Brooks and the Bray womenfolk, who were numerous and influential tribe. not only turned silent faces when they met, but they made war on her In the peculiar fashion of women. word here, suggestive phrase there. shrug of the shoulders. It all bore fruit. Other friends conveyed the avid gossip. Hazel smiled and ignored | 1t. But In her own rooms she ragged unavailingly.
 Her husband had left her. There was man in the case. They had lost everything. The first count was suf- ficiently maddening because 1t was half truth. And any of it was irritat- ing-even if few believed-since 1t made a choice morsel to digest in gos- sipy corners, and brought sundry curi- ous stares on Hazel at certain times. Also Mir. Wagstaff had caused the stockholders of Free Gold heavy loss which was only offset by the fact that the Free Gold properties were producing richly. None of this was even openly flung at her. She gathered 1t piecemeal. And 1t gallcd her. She could not openly defend either Bill or herself against the shadowy scandal mongers.
 Slowly 1t dawned upon her, with a bitterness born of her former experi- ence with Granville, that she had lost something of the standing that certain circles had accorded her as the wife of q successful mining man. It made l her ponder. Was Bill so far wrong, after all. in his estimate of them? It was q disheartening conclusion. She had come of family that stood well in Granville; she had grown up there; If lifetime friends blew hot and cold like that, was the game worth playingf l In so far as she could she gave the lie Ia some of the petty gossip, Where us at first she had looked dubiously on | spending Bil's money to maintain the | standard of living they had set up, she now welcomed that deposit of five l thousand dollars us Il means to dem- l onstrate that even in his absence he stood behind her tinanciaIly-which 1 she began to perceive counted more than anything else. So long as she could dress in the best, while she could ride where others walked, so long as | she betrayed no limitation of re- | sources, the doors stood wide. Not 1 what you are, but what you've got she remember >d Bill saying that was | their holiest creed.
 It repelled her. And sometimes she was tempted to sit down and pour 1t all out in letter to him. But she could not quite bring herself to the point. ! Always behind Bill loomed the vast and dreary Northland, and she shrank from that.
 On top of this. she began to suffer d queer upset of her physical coudi ton. All her life she had been splen- didly healthy; her body perfect working machine. afflicted with no weaknesses. Now odd spasmodic pains recurred without rhyme or reason in her head, her back. her limbs, strik- ing her with sudden poignancy. disap- bearing as suddenly.
 She was stretched on the lounge one afternoon wrestling nervously with a particularly acute attack. when Vesta lorimer was ushered in.
 You're almost II stranger" Hazel remarked after the first greetings. Your outing must have been pleasant to hold you so long"
 It would have held me longer"