Viola Gwyn

eyes. He recalled seeing just such a look in the eyes of a cornered deer. She met his gaze for a fleeting instant and then, turning away, walked rapidly over to the little window,

wn rather sharply upon the strip of rag carpet that fronted the wide rock-made heart

she faced him, her chin raised, a

d haughtily. "Why should you pres

e offended you. No doubt, in my stupidity, I have been mis

nner underwent a swift and agreeable change. She advanced slowl

le?" she pleaded, with mock submissi

humble opinion you would do yourself a very grave injustice if yo

ng her stand at the opposite end of the hearth, from

ix," he said airily. "The boys c

ay men do,-as they become older." She ran a cool, amused eye over his long, well-proportioned figure, taking in the butter-nut coloured trousers, the foppish waistcoat, the

sked, abruptly. Again sh

s in his own. He was saying over and over again to himself that never had he seen any one so lovel

aress of the firelight. "Sometimes I feel much older than nineteen," she went on, shaking her head as if puzzled. "I remember that I was supposed to be very large for my age w

rer and leaned an

ther," he said, halting

t studied his face curiously, as if searching

e said in a low voice.

rents after I was five years old." He did not offer any further information. "As a tiny la

s, deferential, friendly. What right had she,-this insufferable peacock,-to consider herself his superior? Hot words rushed to his lips, but he checked them. He contented himself with an angry contemplation of her slender, graceful figure as she poised in the open doorway, holding the latch in one hand while the other was pressed against her bare throat for protection against the cold night air. Her ringlets

to the threshold. She half-k

"You cannot come in! Back with yo

and quickly c

advanced to the fireplace. She was shivering. "That means

her hands t

e, but he saw the dimple deepen in her cheek and an almost imperceptible twitching at the cor

him over her shoulder. He caught a s

if I was rude," she

e no longer desired t

way offended

, staring thoughtfully at the flames. A faint sigh es

puzzled. I am about to confess something to you. You will see me again,-often perhaps,-if you remain long in this country. It is my wish that you should not know wh

ishes in this or any other matter," he said,

mprehensible costume. That much you shall have, if no more. This frock is a new one. It has just come up the river from St. Louis. I have never had it on until to-day. Another one, equally as startling, lies in that bedroom over there, an

one?" he exclaimed. The thought rushed into his mind:

rrible black. Do not misjudge me. I am not vain, nor am I as heartless as you may be thinking. I had and still have the greatest respect for my father. He was a good man, a fine man. But in all the years of my life he never spoke a loving wo

ng like despair in it,-sadness, unhappiness,-and I could not help feeling that I was the cause of it. When I was a tiny girl he never carried me in his arms. My mother always did that. When I was thirteen years old he hired me out as a servant in a farmer's family and I worked there until I was fourteen. It was not in this neighbourhood. I worked for my board and keep, a thing

ady to go down to St. Louis to school. He put me in charge of a trader and his wife who were going down the river by perogue. He gave them money to buy suitable clothes for me

my place was with her. That was last fall. She is still in the deepest mourning, and I believe will never dress otherwise. I have said a

o remark, sympathetically: "He

er that I might try them on. I live in town, with my mother. She left the farm after my father's death. She adored him. She could not bear to live out there on the lonely-but, that is of no interest to you. A few weeks ago I asked her if I might not take off the black. She refused at first, but finally consented. I have her promise that I may put on colours sometime this spri

night if you had not explained this tantalizing mystery. Therefore, I thank you. May I have your permi

must decline to give you the p

er withdrawing a statement, unless I am convinced by incontrovertible evidence that I w

black dress and bonnet,-an

to be a very thick one,-I am sure,-could make me doubt my own eyes

he smile died on her lips, which remained drawn and slightly parted as if frozen; she seemed for the moment to have stopped breathing. He was acutely alive to the old searching, penetrating look,-only now there

hout completing the sentence. After a moment she we

's voice loudly proclaiming the staunchness of his out

his here kitchen without wipin' your feet? Might as well be the barn,

the opening and shutt

finds matrimony very trying," s

doorway. She was rol

'l Boone. He used to hunt with old Dan'l when he was a boy, an' if ever'thing happened to them two fellers that he sez happened, why, Phin'd have to be nearly two hund

e kitchen? If you are, would you mind coming into the bedroom with me? I want you to see the other dress on me, and beside

dress?" he cried, visibly disappointed. "Surely you

your compliments against the day when you behold me in my s

urned, bowing stiffl

the mantel, and now stood holding the bedroom door open for the q

e inoffensive door when Striker

men?" he demanded

he thumb wa

an accusing gleam in his eye as h

er and stretched his long legs out to the fire. "I fancy we are safe to smoke

ch from the peg on the mante

. He rapped timorously on one of the thick boards. "Want me fer anyt

re ready an' don't ferge

as," called out an

d Striker, with a dubi

ed to the

ooks up at my face to see if it's me. Sometimes I get so doggoned mad I wish it wasn't me, so's I could turn out to be the preacher er somebody like that an' learn her to be keerful who she's talkin' to. Supposin' I do track a little mud into her kitchen? It's OUR mud, ain't it? 'Tain't as if it was somebody

appearance. Ever notice a cat walk across a muddy strip o' ground? Why, you'd think they was walkin' on a red hot stove, the way they step. I've seen a cat go fifty rods out of her way to get around a mud-puddle. I recollect seein' ole Maje,-he's our principal tom-cat,-seein' him creepin' along a rail fence nearly half a mile from the house so's he wouldn't

, sirree! Dogs is like men. They grow up to be useful citizens, mud er no mud. Why, if I had a dog what sat down on the doorstep an' licked his paws ever' time he got mud on 'em I'd take him out an' shoot him, 'cause I'd know he wasn't no kind of a dog at all. Now, Eliza's tryin'

his ponderous boots, disdaining the stout charred poker that leaned against the chimney wall. He was pulling dreamily at the corncob pipe; the fragrant blue smoke, drif

which she accounted for her raiment, followed so closely, so abruptly by the most insolent display of bad manners he had ever known, gave him ample excuse for reflection, and if he failed to obtain the full benefit of Striker's discourse it was because he had no power to command his addled thoughts. As a matter of fact, he was debating within himself

mptly. "Do you cure it yourself or do

t have much luck tryin' to ra

traders one could trust and those who could not be trusted out of sight; the short corn crop of the year before and the way he lost half a dozen as fine shoats as you'd see in a lifetime o

," he said at last, as his guest drew his huge ol

ittle surmising, Mr. S

itting-room and one b

My servant has gone

e you and I are to

bed an' we pull an extry straw tick out here in the room an' make the best of it. Now, as I figger it out, Eliza is usin' that straw tick herself, 'cause she certainly wouldn't ever drea

le while ago that she too had been a h

u that?" demande

wynne, enjoying his

ashes over these here coals," said he, "'cause if I don't an' the cabin took fire an' burnt us all alive Eliza'd never git done jawin' me about it." Presently he stood off and critically surveyed his work. "I guess tha

utting yourselves out terribly on my account.

with her three children dropped in sort of unexpected on account of havin' their two wagons git stuck in a snow drift a mile er so from here. No, sirree, don't you worry. There's a spare tick up in the attic what we use fer strangers when they happen along, an' Zachariah has put your blankets right here by the door,-an' your pistols, too, I see,-so wh