Part 14 (2/2)

On the verandah of Barellan Mrs dickson was sitting, with the eyes that saw not staring away into the blue distance, with the soft, warently on to her face, and with a s round her mouth

She was contented, more contented than she had been for many years; for since Ailleen had come to the station to live, there had not been a day illy had been entirely absent fro as he was somewhere near her Mrs dickson was contented The love, the unreasoning, unrequited love, she lavished on the boy was the one leam of happiness left to her since the terrible day when she had chanced upon the wreck of the stuck-up coach, and had returned to the station with the alarm, only to fall, when no one was near to help her, and lie with the fierce sunlight burning her eyes into blindness, and the weight of a knowledge upon her mind which would have killed her had not the needs of another life, dependent upon hers, ririm story such as hovers over the life of a woame

Vanity; love of admiration; thirst for notoriety; the love of htly held, till the fascination of one caratified ambition had raised a barrier to its acceptance; the recoil of jealousy until the barrier ept away; flight with the one whose influence had changed the current of life; discovery, and then disaster--it was a whirl of emotion, a flood of passion, an unke, and through the long, black years of blindness the chief character in the drale were unravelled, and Fate resurew upon her how terrible a thing it would be if the one link which connected the happiness of the past with the present should snap; if the boy, as the one glealoom of her life, should fail her As the years rolled on, and the boy--always a boy to her--had passed fro towards her had been constantly in keeping with the opinion he usually expressed to any of his companions about her: ”She's dotty half the time, and when she ain't, she's scotty” She was ”dotty” when she tried to induce hi out in the world of sunlight and sight, the world she could no longer know; she was ”scotty” when she upbraided hi and inducing to talk He gave her no love: she felt that, though she would never have admitted it by word of mouth; for even if he turned away from her, with brusqueness and hard words, she could not but love the boy her eyes had never seen

The ht back to her, the associations of the years which had preceded the time of affliction, and the play of emotions and passions which she had known before the side-wash of life's streaht her and drifted her, a dismantled derelict, on to the dreary salt-laht be

And yet all the ht back to her were not peaceful There were soht of the past by broad black bands of shadow, so themselves into herfor the companionshi+p of some one with sympathy; such a one, indeed, as she realized Ailleen to be the irl clasped her hand when she thought a stray word had given pain

Shut out from the world by her blindness, she was still further isolated by the circumstances under which she was situated at Barellan An up-country station has not a very large visiting list at the best of tium-trees and the 'possums, the scenery and the stock, and that is about all ith a woman can interest herself beyond those hom she is immediately associated With all these eliminated, the world of a white woe nor especially attractive; and so the advent of Ailleen at Barellan put a fresh interest, and a kindly interest, into the blind woman's life It was sorrohich had driven Ailleen away froirl had bravely striven to keep in subjection by care and attention to the wo But there was little heed of that in the mind of the Lady of Barellan She was contented, and the cause of her content, or the price, so long as another paid it, was nothing to her now, any more than it had been in the far-off days before the curtain cahts in herhow the present attraction for willy at the station ht be made a permanent attraction, and then there would never be a risk of his being taken away froested the black line of shadohich had marred the sunshi+ne in the olden days

”It is ten years since,” she said to herself, as the sn or a sound Surely it will not coain now; surely I may have some peace, some rest Twenty years in darkness, twenty years in lonely sorrow--surely that should pay the penalty of one ht in her chair, with her hands clasped suddenly together, her cheeks growing pale and her head leaning forward as she listened intently

From the distance, in the direction of the clu disaster of years before, there cao's howl The woman shuddered as she heard it--shuddered and lay back in her chair with tightly closed lips, and breath that was short and hard Again the howl sounded across the paddock, and again she shuddered Then, sitting upright, she twisted a light shawl she had with her over her head, and rising to her feet, slowly felt her way along the verandah, down the steps, and on until her hand touched the rail which ran from the verandah to the trees across the paddock

She was following it, and was nearly halfway across, when Ailleen, co on to the verandah, saw her, and at once ran after her She turned as she heard the girl's voice calling, and waited where she stood

”Why, where are you going? And alone, too,” Ailleen exclai on your head, and the sun scorching

Why----”

The elder woman turned a pale, careworn face towards her, and held up her hand

”I ought to have told you--I forgot--but this--I always co happened, and--I coo back to the house This rail is--to guidein the words, so in the face, which appealed to the girl

”Just as you wish,” she answered quietly ”Only let et you a hat”

”I always coo back”

She stood still with her face towards the house as Ailleen returned, and then, as she heard the girl's footsteps on the verandah, she turned and walked to the cluh the little gate in the fence Closing the gate after her, she stepped forward, holding out a hand slightly in front of her

”Well?”

At the sound of the word she stood rigid, the pallor deepening on her face She knehere he was standing though she could not see; she knew that barely a yard away thea band across his forehead, dran in a scowl over eyes that glared at her in all the cruelty of unredeemed hate

”How's the boy?”

”He is well,” she answered, ”very well He is----”