Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1939-07-20
CHAPTER IV-Continued

Mrs. Toilette had, too, an admir-
able courage. Her ambitions had
been wrapped up in her son. What
her father might have been, Evans
was to be. They had scrimped and
saved that he might go to college and
study law. Then, at that first dread
full cry from across the seas, he had
gone. There had been long months
of fighting. He had left her in the
flower of his youth, a wonderland,
with none to match him among his
friends. He had come back crushed
and broken. He, whose career lay
so close to his heart-could do now
no sustained work. Mentally and
physically he must rest. He might
be years in getting back. He would
never get back to gay and gallant
boyhood. That was gone forever.
Yet if Mrs. Follette's heart had
failed her at times, she had never
shown it. She was making the farm
pay for itself She supplied the peo-
pie of Sherwood Park and surround
ing estates with milk. But she
never was in any sense-a milk
woman. It was, rather, as if in
selling her milk she distributed ia
vors. 1t was on this income that she
subsisted, she and her son.
Later he and Jane walked togeth-
er in the clear cold. She was in a
gay mood. She was wrapped in
her old orange cape, and the sun,
breaking the bank of sullen clouds
in the west, seemed to turn her
1.-the young body into flame.
"Don't you love a day like this,
Evans?" She pressed forward up
the hill with all her strength. Ev-
ans followed, painting. At the top
they sat down for a moment on an
old log-which faced the long aisles
of snow between thin black trees.
The vista was clear-cut and almost
artificial in it's restraint of color and
it's wide bare spaces.
Evans little dog, Rusty, ran back
and forth-following this trail and
that. Finally in pursuit of rab-
bit, he was led far afield. They
heard him barking madly in the
distance. It was the only sound in
the stiffness.
Jane" Evans said, edo you re-
member the last time we were
here?"
eyes" The light went out of her
eyes.
GAS I look back it was heaven,
Jane. I'd give anything on Gods
earth if ! was where I was then"
All the blood was drained from
her face. evans, you wouldn' I"
passionately, "you wouldn't give up
those three years in France"
He sat very still. Then he said
tensely, "No, I wouldn't, even
though it has made me lose YOU
Jane
"You mustn't say such things"
81 must. Don't know? You were
such an unawakened little thing, my
dear. But could have-waked you.
And ! can't wake you now. That's
my tragedy. You'll never wake UP
for me-"
Don't"
"Well, it's true. Why not say it?
I've come back a--scarecrow, the
shadow of man. And you're just
where I left you-only lovelier-
more of woman-more to be wor-
shiped-Jane-"
AS he caught her hand up in his,
she had sudden flashing vision of
him as he had been when he last
sat with her in the grove-the swing
of his strong figure, his bare head
borrowing gold from the sun-the
touch of assurance which had been
SO compelling.
II never knew that you cared
81 knew it, but not as I did after
your wonderful letters to me over
there. / felt, if ever came back,
I'd move heaven and earth" He
stopped. "But / came back-differ-
ent. And I haven't any right to say
these things to you. I'm not going
to say them-Jane. It might spoil
our-friendship."
Nothing can spoil our friendship,
Evans
He laid his hand on hers. "Then
you are mine until somebody
comes along and claims your"
"There isn't anybody else,' she
turned her fingers up to meet his,
$50 don't worry, old DEAR" she
smiled at him but her lashes were
wet. Her hand was warm in his
and she let it stay there, and aft
er while she said, II have some
times thought that if it would make
you happy, l might"
"Might-love me?"
eyes"
He shook his head. 81 didn't say
it for that. i just had to have the
truth between us. And l don't want
pity. lift I ever get back-rn