Part 18 (1/2)

But a spirit of restlessness drove her back into the city And at nightfall she went up to her room and threw herself wearily on the bed

She was tired, body and spirit, and lonely Nor was this lightened by the surety that she would be lonelier still before she found a niche to fit herself in and gather the threads of her life onceshe felt better, even to the point of going over the newspapers and jotting down several advertise for office help Her brief experience in Cariboo Meadows had not led her to look kindly on teaching as a raphers seees would be high

With the list in her purse, she went down on Hastings--which runs like a huge artery through the heart of the city, with lesser streets crossing and diverging

But she made no application for eathered her skirt in her hand to cross the street, soht her by the arm, and cried:

”Well, forevermore, if it isn't Hazel Weir!”

And she turned to find herself facing Loraine Marsh--a Granville school chum--and Loraine's mother Back of them, ide and startled eyes, loomed Jack Barrow

He pressed forhile the tomen overwhelmed Hazel with a flood of exclamations and questions, and extended his hand Hazel accepted the overture She had long since gotten over her resentainst him She was furthermore amazed to find that she could le flutter of her pulse It seelad of it And, indeed, she was too enuinely glad to hear a friendly voice again, to dwell hosts of the past

They stood a few o to the hotel, where they could talk at their leisure and in comfort Loraine and her mother took the lead Barrow naturally fell into step with Hazel

”I've been wearing sackcloth and ashes, Hazel,” he said hu from everybody in Granville for the shabby way they treated you Shortly after you left, somebody on one of the papers ferreted out the truth of that Bush affair, and the vindictive old hound's reasons for that coacy were set forth It seems this newspaper fellow connected up with Bush's secretary and the nurse Also, Bush appears to have kept a diary--and kept it posted up to the day of his death--poured out all his feelings on paper, and repeatedly asserted that he would win you or ruin you And it seeht after you refused to come to him when he was hurt, he called in his lawyer and made that codicil--and spent the rest of the ti your character”

”I've grown rather indifferent about it,” Hazel replied impersonally

”But he succeeded rather easily Even you, who should have known me better, were ready to believe the very worst”

”I've paid for it,” Barrow pleaded ”You don't kno I've hated ht ainstthe way you did Where have you been, and how have you been getting on? You surely look well” He bent an adlance on her

”Oh, I've been every place, and I can't co on,”

she answered carelessly

For the life of her, she could not helpcouessed would by now be bearing up to the crest of the divide that overlooked the green and peaceful vista of forest and lake, with the Babine Range lying purple beyond She wondered if Roaring Bill Wagstaff would ever, under any circury distrust that Barrow had once betrayed And she could not conceive of Bill Wagstaff ever being hu he had done Barrow's attitude was that of a little boy who had broken so to put the pieces together again It amused her Indeed, it afforded her a distinctly un-Christian satisfaction, since she was not by nature of aspirit He hador two himself

Hazel visited with the three of them in the hotel parlor for a matter of two hours, went to luncheon with theht up the subject of her co home to Granville with them The Bush incident was discussed and dis, Hazel was noncoly to her

Granville was horown up there There were a multitude of old ties, associations, friends to draw her back But whether her home toould seem the same, whether she would feel the same toward the friends who had held aloof in the time when she needed a friend theback to her, was a question that she thought of if she did not put it in so many words On the other hand, she knew too well the drear loneliness that would close upon her in Vancouver when the Marshes left

”Of course you'll co you behind So you can consider that settled” Loraine Marsh declared at last ”We're going day after to-morrow So is Mr Barrow”

Jack walked with her out to the Ladyss, told her how he happened to be in the coast city

”I've been doing pretty well lately,” he said ”I came out here on a deal that involved about fifty thousand dollars I closed it up just this --and the commission would just about buy us that little house we had planned once Won't you let bygones be bygones, Hazie?”

”It ht be possible, Jack,” she answered slowly, ”if it were not for the fact that you took the most effective means a man could have taken to kill every atom of affection I had for you I don't feel bitter any more--I sierly ”Just give me a chance I was a hot-headed, jealous fool, but I never will be again Give me a chance, Hazel”

”You'll have to make your own chances,” she said deliberately ”I refuse to bind myself in any way Why should I put myself out to make you happy when you destroyed all the faith I had in you? You siain If slander could turn you against ht a second time Besides, I don't care for you as ato care--except, perhaps, in a friendly way”

And with that Barrow had to be content