Connecticut western news., 1919-12-25

| 1 plate such a consummation as very 1 much to be desired Subconsciously,
 rather than from specific motive, she
 assumed a still more friendly attitude i toward him.
 1 Bert Morrison's confession had, how
 ever, set up another very insistent i train of thought in Irene's mind. She realized that Bert, with all her show
 of cynicism, and masculinity, was
 really a very womanly young woman, i with just the training and the insight i into life that would make her almost ! irresistible should she enter the mat i rimonial market. And Bert and Dave ] were already good friends; very good 1 friends indeed, as Irene suspected l from fragments of conversation which
 either of them dropped from time to
 time. Although she never doubted l the singleness of Daves devotion, she i sometimes suspected that in Bert Nor risons presence he felt more frank comradeship than in hers. And it was preposterous that he. should not know l that Bert might be won for the win ming. And meantime
 l Another winter wore away; another spring came rushing from the noun | tain passes; another summer was upon them, and still Irene Hardy had not surrendered. A thousand times she told herself it was impossible, with | her mother to think of-and always she ended in indignation over her treatment of Dave. It was outrageous l to keep him waiting and some
 where back of her self-indignation fit l ted the form-the now seductive form --of Bert Morrison.
 Irene Hardy chose to be frank with herself over the situation. She had not doubted the sincerity of her at tachment for Dave Elden; but, had she experienced such a doubt, the en- l try of Bert Morrison into the drama
 would have forever removed it. In fairness she admitted that things could not continue as they were. If she continued to trifie with Dave Elden-
 Yes, trifle. She would be frank.
 She would not spare herself. She had been trifiing with him. .. She would lay her false pride aside. In the purity of her womanhood, which he could not misunderstood, she would divest her
 self of all convention and tell him frankly that-that-
 She was not sure what she would tell or how she would tell 1t. She was sure only that she would make him know. At the very next opportunity. .s.
 It came on a fine summers evening in late July, while Dave and Irene drifted in, his car over the rich ripen- ing prairies.
 Everywhere were fields of dark i green wheat, already beginning to glimmer with the gold of harvest; ev- anywhere were herds of sleek cattle signing and blowing contentedly in the cool evening air. Away to the west lay the mountains, blue and soft as pillow of velvet for the head of the dying day; overhead, inverted islands of brass and copper floated lazily in an inverted sea of azure and opal; up from the southwest came the breath of the far Pacific, mild and soft and gentle.
 We started at the wrong end in our nation building" Dave was saying. "We started to build cities, leaving the country to take care of itself. We are finding out how wrong we were. Depend upon it, where there is pros porous country the cities will take care of themselves. We have been putting the cart before the horse"
 But Irene's eyes were on the sunset; on the slowly fading colors of the cloudlands overhead. Something of that color played across her fine face, mellowing, softening, drawing as it seemed. the very soul to cheeks and lips and eyes. Dave paused in his speech to regard her. and her beauty rushed upon him. engulfed him, over whelmed him in such a poignancy of tenderness that 1t seemed for a mo- ment all his resolves must be swept away and he must storm the citadel that would not surrender to siege. .. Only action could hold him resolute; he pressed down the accelerator until the steel lungs of his motor were drinking power to their utmost capac- 1ty lIC uOWA the stretches of the country road
 It was dusk when he had burnt out his violence, and, chastened and spent, he turned the machine to hum back gently to the forgotten city. Irene, by some fine telepathy, had fol lowed vaguely the course of his emo tions; had followed them in delicious excitement and fear and hope. She sensed in some subtle feminine way the impulse that had sent him roaring into the distances; she watched his powerful hand on the wheel; his clear, steady eye; the minute accuracy with which he controlled his flying motor; and she prayed-and did not know what or why she prayed. But a color not all of the dying sunlight lit her cheek as she guessed-she feared nE~