The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1939-12-21
CHAPTER III-COntinued

There was no mistaking Hector's
meaning. He would say no more
about it at present. On the other
hand, his very manner was In itself
a confession. Autunnn's question had
been answered. She had no desire
to leave her old friend IN an un-
pleasant frame of mind. She looked
up at him and laughed.
Hector, you old goose" she said,
''I believe you are almost angry.
After all, there isn't much that Ell
Their of us can do about it now.
Come along, darling, and show me
your flowers"
In Hector's orderly garden at the
rear Of the cottage, blue flags stood
tail and brave, cupping the sunlight.
Autumn stared at them and tried
desperately to check the shaking
uncertainty of her own heart; 1t was
In Bruce Landor's eyes that she had
seen that same clean and gallant
blue.
The moods which had attended
Bruce Lander all day had been of
two disconcerting extremes. In one
moment he would be swept up to
heights of emotion as he thought or
how Autumn Dean looked at him on
their meeting last night, the quick,
shy yelling of those luminous gray
green eyes Of hers, concealment
that had brought a strange throb to
his blood. In the next moment he
would be in the depths, remember
ing how she had been sent away.
Wen Autumn had gone, he had
done his best to soothe his mother
and dissipate the fears that had be-
set her wandering mind. When he
had finally succeeded in getting her
to sleep, he had sat beside her for
a long time, reluctant to call the
nurse from her room.
All his life, it seemed, Bruce Lam
dor had been compelled to adjust
himself In one way or another to
his mothers humors. He had
scarcely known a day at home that
had not been marred by her varia-
bic temper that often fared up over
the merest trifie. 1t had begun when
he was eight-twenty years ago now
and very soon he had grown, IN
his pathetic boyish way, to under
stand that his mothers sudden out
bursts were her only means OF pre-
serving her sanity after what had
happened to his father, that dash
ing figure Economically and tragical-
~ Irnned In memory. She must
have loved Godfrey Lander with a
singular and rather awful intensity,
and Bruce could imagine the dread
full scene IN the birch-hung gully
recurring to her with cruel sudden
ness II the midst of some familiar
task He could imagine her lifting
her eyes from her sewing or from
her work among her fower-beds,
and beholding again the stark verify
of Godfrey Lander lying face down.
ward N the shallow, amber-clear
creek, his head lying downstream
and the white stones under the water
there becoming red as sullen gar
nets. Out of his own young heart
break had grown a great pity and
patience for her.
In all those twenty years Bruce
had never heard his mother speak
the name of Millicent Odell until she
had spoken it last night. His men,
DRY of his father was on the whole
very vague. But he could recall
one afternoon IN sunmer-it had re-
NAMED with him like vivid dream
when they had ridden together
down the birch-illed gully where
they had gathered pocketfuls of
rounded pebbles from the creek and
Bruce had used them In the sling
shot his father had made for him.
He did not know how he had come
TO think of his father and Millicent
Dean as friends, but somewhere IN
that dinnly recollected past he had
seen them riding together down
some forgotten trail and his boyish
fancy had chung to the picture so
that he had rarely been able to
think of them apart. He remem-
bered, too, the day when Jarvis
Deans wife had died. He had for
gotten the words his mother had
spoken that day, but the bitter spirit
IN which she had spoken them had
fingered with his curiosity concern
ing the relationship of the two
women.
And now, after nearly twenty
years, Jane Lander had once more
spoken the name of Millicent Oden,
with a bitterness and hatred that
time itself had failed to vanquish. Of
late, he knew, there had been some
thing almost fanatical IN the proud
manner In which his mother had
spurned Jarvis Dean, but Bruce had
found some excuse for that II the
naughty arrogance of the old Laird
himself, who for years had lived
almost as a recluss In his forTnida-
Bile turreted house. Jarvis Deans
manner to the world IN general had
been hostile, people said, ever since
the death of his beautiful wife. II
Bruce was perplexed at the Laird's
stony refusal to acknowledge him
even as a neighbor, there was at
least some consolation IN the fact
that the dour sheepman treated ev-
eryone alike, granting each a sort
of Individual eclipse with the extra
ordinary power of his unseeing eye.