Connecticut western news., 1918-04-04
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 oYV Bertrand " Sinclair c9yr4H y LITTLE. .Ra0RWGCo
cRy8Rt z LITTLE. B2oN dco
4 month passed.


 3ew lines to say:
 "Hit the ranch yesterday, little per eon. Looks good to me. Went fishing East night about sundown. Trout were xising fine. Nailed ten-pounder. Woke up this morning at daylight and 6ound a buck deer with two lady 6riends standing in the middle of the telearing. loafed a few days in Fort George, sort of thinking I might hear from you. Am sending this out by 0ake. 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 nght 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 khe days passed she felt less sure of her ground, less sure that she had not sacrificed something precious to a vagary'of self, an obsession of her own ego.
 And slowly but surely she began to view all the activities of her circle pwith critical eye. Certain of her intends had become tentative enemies Kitty Brooks and the Bray womenfolk who were a numerous and influential tribe, not only turned silent faces when they met, but they made war on her in the peculiar fashion of women A word here, a 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 ragedi unavailingly.
 Her husband had left her. There, was man in the case. They had lost everything. The first count was suf- hciently maddening because 1t was al half truth, And any of it was irritat-i mg-even if few believed-since it, made choice morsel to digest in gos. sipy corners, and brought sundry curi-I GUS sfares on Hazel at certain times Also MT. Wagstaff had caused the stockholders of Free Gold a heavy lossI 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 it galled her. She could not openly defend either Bill or herself against the shadowy scandal mongers.
 Slowly it dawned upon her, with a bitterness born of her former experi- Rnce With Granville, that she had losI something of the standing that certain cafcies had accorded her as the wife oT -a' successful mining man. It made ner ponder. Was Bill so far wrong, &Iter all,, in his estimate of them? It was disheartening conclusion. She. mad come of family that stood wellI sn Granville; she had grown up there ;i aI lifetime friends blew hot and cold nke that, was the game worth playing?I 7 1n So far as she could she gave the Me to some of the petty gossip. Where as at first she had looked dubiously on spending Bills money to maintain the standard of living they had set up, she ADw welcomed that deposit of five Thousand dollars as means to dem- Rnstrate that even in his absence he stood behind her financially-which @he began to perceive counted more than anything else. So long as she WGnId dress in the best, while she could ride where others walked, so long as Nhe~ betrayed no limitation of re- sources, the doors stood wide. Not! what you are, but what you've got, m6fe remembered Bill saying that was kheir holiest creed.
 Itlrepelled her. And sometimes she was tempted to sit down and pour it all Dwut 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 8rom that. i
 On top of this, she began to suffer h queer upset of her physical condi- tSon. All her life she had been splen- lldlys healthy; her body a 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-l bearing as suddenly.
 She was stretched on the lounge one afternoon wrestling nervOusly with al particularly acute attack, when Vesta LOrimer was ushered in.
 You're almost a stranger" Hazel xemarked. after the first greetings. -1our outing must have been pleasant, to hold you so long,"
 "It would have held me longer" Vest returned, If didn't have to be in touch with my market. I could live 4uite happily on my island eight months in the year. But one can't get people tO come several hundred miles As a sitting. And I feel inclined to ac- aUfre a living income while my vogue 1nsts."
 You're rather a wilderness lover, aren't you?" Hazel commented. 'T don't think you'd love it as dearly If