Judsonia weekly advance., 1920-03-04
CHAPTER Xi.-Ccntinucd.
--17---


 really a very womanly young woman, with just the training and the insight into life that would make her almost irresistible should she enter the mat rimonial market. And Bert and Dave were already good friends; very good friends indeed, as Irene suspected from fragments of conversation which either Of them dropped from time to time. Although she never doubted the singleness of Dave's devotion, she sometimes suspected that in Bert Nor rison's presence he felt a more frank comradeship than in hers And it was preposterous that he should not know that Bert might be won for the win ming. And meantime
 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 her mother to think of-and always she ended in indignation over her treatment of Dave. It was outrageous to keep him waiting and some where back of her self-indignation fit 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- 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 trfle with Dave Elden-
 Yes, trifle. She would be frank. She would not spare herself. She had been trifling 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 it. She was sure only that she would make him know. At the very next opportunity
 
 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 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 a pillow of velvet for the head of the dying day; overhead, inverted islands of brass and copper fioated 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 1t, where there is a pros porous country the cities will take care of themselves. We have been putting tho cart before the horse"
 But Irene's eyes were on the sunset 1; 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 checks 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 it 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 drinking power to their utmost capac- ity and the car roared furiously down 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 1; and she prayed-and did not know what or why she prayed. But color not all of the dying sunlight lit her check as she guessed-she feared she hoped--that she had prayed that he might forget his fine resolves that his heart might at last outrule his head.
 In the deepening darkness her fin- gers found his arm. The motion of the car mag,,ed the violence of her trem- bling, but for a time the pounding of her heart would not allow her speech.
 'Dave," she said, at length, "I want to tell you that think you--that We tlat T-.-Oh Two han, x-a,.v caIf;Sh onI