The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-04-23

sit Never occurred TO hoT nat j
Might Love YOU" He Said.
'T don't know" she told him. 9"
don't know yet"
He looked around at the yellow
horizon in the west and shivered.
1--WE aren't by ourselves" he ex-
claimed with irritation. Not here in
Dallas. We ought to take a trip"
"a trip!" said Brena. How could
we take a trip?"
"You mean because of money? Well,
I'm going to fix that" He smiled
craftily. "Tve a strange hold on some
money, Brena. l suppose that when
l turn up with some real money peo-
pie will say that l dipped into the till
or had a rich uncle die. 1t will be such
q novelty to have a roll. But they'll
be wrong. I'll get it my own way. And
it's coming"
"Oh, Jimi"
Money or no money, I want you,"
he said. Some day I'll make you say
you love me-"
Brena lay awake under a hot roof
wondering whether she loved Jim Hen
nepin. There was no one to tell her
that she did not.
AS the weeks went on she found
herself asking where the end would be
of day after day of showing perfumed
wives of Dallas business men en-
b~roidered linens at the Porto Rican
store, of walking home, sometimes
with men staring at her, of trying to
find interest in the chocolate fudge
minds of girls who did not like to
have her around because she talked
like q professor and wore the beauty
they wished was theirs. 1t was not
clear that Jim was not the one man
of all, the prince who stepped out OF
nothing and held out his hands to her
IL some kind Of miraculous tableau.
No one reminded her that she was only
seventeen she felt that she was as OLD
as the pyramids, for her reading had
made her appear as related to the past.
More than anything else some funda-
mental part of her declared that she
was as nothing, that whatever she
might do or become there could be no
disaster, no loss that she was created
to be given away.
One day Jim came home at the noon
hour. He did not usually come then,
and evidently he had not come to have
lunch there, for he stood outside the
door where his aunt's piggy eyes could
not see him, and beckoned to Brena
m~ysteriously.
When she had come out onto the
porch, he took her hand and led her
around the corner of the house. She
could always remember the heat of the
blazing sun of noon which fattened its
burning upon them as If it were some
great wrath.
Look here p said Jim, with a kind
of ferocity in his voice and eyes. I'm
going away. Compton Parmalee won't
be in Dallas, and I've an errand to
do
You're so excited, Jim"
Eyes, l know. But the time has
come. l want to know if you love
me-
He did not appear to care much
what ner answer WOULD pc.
81 think / do, jim"
You're willing to take a trip? Brave
enough to go to st. Louis alone? To
meet me?"
You mean you want to marry me,
Jim2"
"Why yes, If it turns out all right"
"I1l GO"
Brave enough?"
'I'm not much of a coward, jim
that least of ALL"
"Well. then-listen. Here's a hotel.
The name is written on that card. Be
there on Friday, the twelfth of the
month. I'll be there at -four o'clock.
You better come the day before. Get a
room and don't be frightened"
mo, jim"
"Why dc you look at me SOP
Because / have no money now
'That's all right. Here, take this.
It's plenty, Ell? Don't let any one see
1t. And you won't say"
"Of course not, Jim-not anything"
"Your hand on that"
She put her hand in his.
why are you going away, Jlm2"
He looked into her eyes, and If
Brena had known the world better, she
would have seer something of the bru-
tally of Jim Hennepin at that mo-
ment.
Tell noe. JIM