The Ely miner., 1936-10-08
"Agnes, what have you done?"


"Done!" said Agnes breathlessly.
what I'll never, never uRdo-what-
ever anybody says. Bee. I've told
Cathal O'Mara I'll marry him."
Her sister seized her. "What?
Agnes"
'Yes," whispered Agnes, II told him.
That's what / did. But he fears l
don't know what l mean. That's why
he's gone away"
what are you talking about? Come
into my ROOM" begged Bee, before she
remembered Davis just beyond her
door. "No: yours" said said to her
sister; and Agnes followed her into her
own room.
Now, tell ne," the Dark One COM
manded.
'For two weeks" said Agnes con-
fusedly, ''he means to stay away.
We're not to see each other; he won't
come here. He won't even call me-"
"Why?"
$50 I'll have the time to myself to
be surer.'
do you need to be surer?" Bee asked.
Look at me, Agnes =. Oh, damn it,
you've got it! You've got it! :. And
I never had! And I've my third child
within me.
"Pve got him yet. I'm glad of tAat,
you know. Don't you? =. He knows.
I've made him know! =. He tried to
kill himself-for me. But you,
Agnes; you go ahead! To hell with
everything else! Be happy-happy
Happy, 1 tell yOu!"
Daylight laid upon Agnes no dismay.
Through hours after Bee had returned
to Davis, Agnes lay awake; but she
had slept at last, to rouse to objects
that showed again their sharp edges,
to glares and to shadows.
She shut her eyes again and curled
to relive the enjoyment of his arms
about her for the moment before he
had put her away from him-when,
though he held her and she clung to
him, his own faith had failed him. For
he knew that it must be-it was, in
some degree at least, the world of 9TH
ers that they must live in; and no
desperate denials of his own, even
though she Joined in them, could screen
that world away.
Jeb called up. And It was strange
to talk to him and never to Cathal.
Stranger still that he, and never
Cathal, came to the house. But she
ho- Il.
Her father was involved again IN
Davis affairs; and Jeb again-and un-
known to Davis, Agnes hoped-was
helping him salvage something.
Every other day, it seemed, Cathars
name was in the papers; and always
accorded the new respect; for he spoke
of men accused, or about to be put on
trial, who too recently had ruled.
Queerly and pleasantly, on unsum-
moned occasions through these long,
listless days, she recollected everything
he had said to her, from the very first,
and with clarity and completeness as
if, at the time, she had memorized it.
So on one day-it was the ninth of
the ordeal of the fourteen-she re-
called how he had told her that his
grandfather had died in the Cold Stor-
age fire in the Fair of '93.
1t had meant nothing to her; but
now she inquired of it; and the next
afternoon she was in the Tribune
tower, asking to see the files of the
paper for July, 1893. SO there, upon
the brittle and yellowed page, she read
his name-Cathal Martin O'Mara; and
she read what that Cathal O'Mara,
nearly forty years ago, had dared and
done, and how he had died. And his
wife, who had been young then, had
had to look on.
Winnie, that was, Winnie, who had
been at the trial.
Agnes went out to a taxi.
Winnie, on this afternoon, was home
alone, as she often was, and especially
on the afternoons of Tuesday and Fri
day, for then she baked. Bread, first,
and next cakes.
She timed this baking to the school,
bells which, at half-past three, would
ring their release to the little girls and
b'ys.
She stirred great bowl of smooth
golden batter, did Winnie, and she
poured a scant half of il into the big
round tin for the family cake. The
bigger half. by far, Winnie turned into
her tins of dozens of little cupcakes
for the b'ys and girls. And for them,
when they came, she had plenty of
milk in the icebox.
She had quarts Of it today-quarts
beyond the family need. For these
were bitter times for them about here.
as well as for the rich, or them that
had been rich.
So Winnie sat with her huge bowl
in her aproned lap, stirring the batter
smooth with her big wooden spoon, to
be ready once more for the childer-
b'ys and girls; and was it strange that
it was the little, bold, hungry b'ys in
patched trousers and scuffed shoes who
most caught at her heart?
ITO BE CONTINUED