Part 36 (1/2)

Hit the ranch yesterday, little person Looks good to me Have had Lauer do soht about sundown Trout were rising fine Nailed a two-pounder He juaveat daylight and found a buck deer with two lady friends standing in the e, sort of thinking Ithis out by Jake Will start for the Klappan about day after to-morrow

She had not answered his first letter She had tried to But soht words would not come She lacked his facility of expression There was so much she wanted to say, so little she seemed able to say As the days passed she felt less sure of her ground, less sure that she had not sacrificed soary of self, an obsession of her own ego

Many things took on a different complexion now that she stood alone

No concrete evidence of change stood forth preeible i she ca that it would be e she had missed him scarcely at all She could not say that now

And slowly but surely she began to view all her activities of her circle with a critical eye She was brought to this partly in self-defense Certain of her friends had become tentative enemies

Kitty Brooks and the Bray womenfolk, ere a numerous and influential tribe, not only turned silent faces when they met, but they made war on her in the peculiar fashi+on of wo of the shoulders It all bore fruit

Other friends conveyed the avid gossip Hazel sed unavailingly

Her husband had left her There was aThe first count was sufficientlybecause it was a half truth And any of it was irritating--even if few believed--since it ht sundry curious stares on Hazel at certain tistaff had caused the stockholders of Free Gold a heavy loss--which was only offset by the fact that the Free Gold properties were producing richly None of this was even openly flung at her She gathered it piecealled her She could not openly defend either Bill or herself against the shadowy scandalers

Slowly it dawned upon her, with a bitterness born of her for of the standing that certain circles had accorded her as the wife of a successful , after all, in his esti conclusion She had corown up there; if life-tiaave the lie to soossip

Whereas at first she had looked dubiously on spending Bill'sthey had set up, she noelcomed that deposit of five thousand dollars as a means to demonstrate that even in his absence he stood behind her financially--which she began to perceive countedas she could dress in the best, while she could ride where others walked, so long as she betrayed no limitation of resources, the doors stood wide Not what you are, but what you've got--she re that was their holiest creed

It repelled her And sometimes she was tempted to sit down and pour it all out in a letter to hi herself to the point Always behind Bill loomed the vast and dreary Northland, and she shrank froan to suffer a queer upset of her physical condition All her life she had been splendidly healthy; her body a perfect-working machine, afflicted with no weaknesses Now odd spasmodic pains recurred without rhy her with sudden poignancy, disappearing as suddenly

She was stretched on the lounge one afternoon wrestling nervously with a particularly acute attack, when Vesta Lorier,” Hazel re ”

”It would have held er,” Vesta returned, ”if I didn't have to be in touch with ht et people to co And I feel inclined to acquire a living incoue lasts”

”You're rather a wilderness lover, aren't you?” Hazel commented ”I don't think you'd love it as dearly if you were buried alive in it”

”That would all depend on the circu things in a country that is still co one's end up in town gets terribly wearisoo to the woods, and sorry when I have to leave But I suppose it's largely in one's point of view”

They chatted of sundry matters for a few minutes

”By the way, is there any truth in the statement that this Free Gold row has created trouble between you and your husband?” Vesta asked abruptly ”I dare say it's quite an ihts to tell me it's none of my business But I should like to confound soht hours; yet I've heard tongues wagging I hope there's nothing in it I warned Mr Wagstaff against Paul”

”Warned hilected the question entirely The bluntness of it took her by surprise Frank speech was not a characteristic of Vesta Loried her shoulders

”He is my brother, but that doesn't veil my eyes,” she said coolly