Part 27 (1/2)
She wiped an errant tear away, andup, like the bank and the hotel, with the growing i drove her to despair It seemed that omen resided in Hazleton owns of cheap cotton print with other gararments of a sort, a waist and skirt, and a comfortable pair of shoes Hats, as a milliner would understand the terray felt soain--which, in truth, becale above her heavy black hair Then she went back to the hotel, and sought a bathroo fro hi is lovely,” he greeted enthusiastically ”Old Hack jumped at the pelts, and paid a fat price for the lot Also the ranch deal has gone through He's a prince, old Hack Sent up afor me And--oh, say, here's a letter for you”
”Forand post north Good heavens, look at the date--it's been here since last September!”
”Hackaberry knehere ere,” Bill explained ”Sometimes in camps like this they hold one into the interior”
She put aside the letter, and dressed while Bill had his bath Then, with the srime of a hard trail obliterated, and with decent clothes upon the-room There, while they waited to be served, Hazel read Loraine Marsh's letter, and passed it to Bill with a self-conscious little laugh
”There's an invitation there we ht accept,” she said casually
Bill read There were certain coht be expected to address to her chum who has forsaken spinsterhood, a lot of chatty s, which held no particular interest for Bill since he knew neither one nor the other, and it ended with an apparently sincere hope that Hazel and her husband would visit Granville soon as the Marshes'
guests
He returned the letter as the waitress brought their food
”Wouldn't it be nice to take a trip hohtfully ”I'd love to”
”We are going hoently
”Oh, of course,” she so back there with you for a while, just to--just to--”
”To show 'em,” he supplied laconically
”Oh, Bill!” she pouted
Nevertheless, she could not deny that there was a measure of truth in his brief remark She did want to ”show 'em” Bill's vernacular expressed it exactly She had compassed success in a manner that Granville--and especially that portion of Granville which she knew and which knew her--could appreciate and understand and envy according to its individual tendencies
She looked across the table at her husband, and thought to herself with proud satisfaction that she had done well Viewed frostaff stood head and shoulders above all the , physically and mentally, clean-minded and capable--indubitably she had captured a lion, and, though she ht have denied stoutly the imputation, she wanted Granville to see her lion and hear him roar
Whether they realize the fact or not, to the average individual, lory is better than none at all And when two people stand in the most intimate relation to each other, the success of one lends a measure of its luster to the other Those who had been so readily is with the fla since learned their mistake She had the word of Loraine Marsh and Jack Barrow that they were genuinely sorry for having been carried away by appearances And she could nail her colors to the staff, who could wrest a fortune from the wilderness in a briefer span of time than it took most men to make current expenses Hazel was quite too human to refuse a march triumphal if it came her way She had left Granville in bitterness of spirit, and so Granville?” Bill queried, when they had finished an uncohtly She was, andof their little nest up by Pine River Pass instead She knew that Bill was hoarded it with affection, but of a different degree from his Hercircle of life than was possible at the cabin, reen and peaceful beauty The sack of gold lying in the bank had so possibilities She skipped the interval of affairs which she knew must be attended to, and betook herself and Bill to Granville, thence to the bigger, older cities, where s were possible to those who had the price
She had had her fill of the wilderness--for the ti, she put it
It loomed behind her--vast, bleak, a desolation of loneliness froet away She kne, beyond peradventure, that her heart had brought her back to the man in spite of, rather than because of, his environe of his love for her and her love for hie a dreas, where he would have wider scope for his natural ability and she less isolation
But she was beginning to know this husband of hers too well to propose anything of the sort abruptly Behind his tenderness and patience she had so as the wilderness he loved So she o outside where I can sgested ”Then we'll figure on the next move I think about twenty-four hours in Hazleton will do oes down-river to-morrow”
CHAPTER XXIV
NEIGHBORS
Four days later they stood on the deck of a gried through the First Narrows