The Wrong Woman

prairie seemed to have found a place for itself. The whole interminable region attached itself to the shack and became a front and backyard; the landscape was situated and set right, knowing

ng instinct. Opening the door, she gave a start and stepped back. Another's "things" were in

pportunity of rest and a comfortable supper, with plenty of strong hot coffee, ought to be taken advantage of. Then, as soon as supper was over, she would retire from the scene and consider what was best to do. She would sit down and try her courage in the dark. Possibly,

f time and matches; but at last it got itself into the spirit of burning. In the midst of these preparations she h

still with her, prompting her to cover her agitation with the appearance of housewifely activity; so every time that she beat against the bars of her situation she carried a fork or a spoon or the lid of somethin

ppeared, she dropped her pretense of being cheerfully occupied and turned her attention in another direction. She looked hard at the shack-its door half open and the two bunks showing. Her brows drew closer together, with the enigma between them. That little Home, to which she had hurried with such a feeling of relief, had taken on a different guise. I

ves. With the terrors of the night before her, she dared not venture away from this man; her very nature courted his presence. His strength and fearlessness she found hersel

ere on his side. The darkness and the shack worked together to

t of man

g question still remained. The face is but a likeness; you should know the original. And yet his countenance, so strongly painted on her mind, seemed always on the point of answering her profoundest query

other. The flat ground seemed paved with gradual ingratiating approach; and no defense but outcry-too terrible and too late. Surely too late, for he was in the position of her protector, and she would have to assume

ce of power against him, some dependence in forces not her own. For a door-sill is definite, and on it rises a formal spectre; but the way to a woman's heart is not so. Out here there were no set bounds; nothing to give pause

ble, even to her; but the strength of a house is not all in locks and bars. She had caught the depth of the man's first charmed look at her. Even a shack can excuse one from the scene, extinguish the light of beauty, and then say with the voice of Society-keep out. Thus things do not so easily and gradually come to an issue. But before her was only the prospect of her open presence, without screen or barrier or warning sign. And

saying a word, gone down into that place. The little gully was as steep, almost, as a grave, deep, long, and narrow. Her eyes turned toward its gloomy shape. What could he be doing down there? What t

m the little stream and put the towel back on its bush, he turned his attention to his twelve-dollar boots-for in the country of boots and saddles the leatherwork is the soul of appearances. He removed the mud with his knife and brushed off the dust with the rabbit. Finding that this latter operation promised finer results, he damped the boots with the tips of his fingers, and taking hold of the long ears and hind legs he worked the rabbit back and forth so industriously

s eye a vision lovelier than this, and much more interesting, rested his gaze on a dark spot which was the spring. At first, her presence at his firehole had seemed unreal; and yet perfectly natural. It was very much as if she had just stepped down out of the sky and said, "Your wish has com

on her camp; for so it seemed to her, so conscious she was of swinging thighs and formidable front as he advanced. He hung his

ating his place and smiling as best she coul

her we are having, Mr

ay. Nice and bright;

t might stay this

Hope it will anyway.

their beginning to an end-as if this pliabl

o the ceremonious way in which he did it) suddenly saw into the little formality as if a strange new light had been shed upon it; and instantly she felt that if she had it to do again she would not set the table in this husband-and-wife way. She was smitten with self-conscio

y bouquet you ha

had plucked upon arriving and used to fill up her

an. Especially that blue kind." Then suddenly, as th

ing. Inquiringly he looked at the flowers, first at the ones whic

great many of them."

know what she meant any more than he knew what he meant-"was-- O

It was like offering final proof that he had not ad

I would n't. That

irst step of

dly. "I have even heard of persons to whom the perfume was offensive; especiall

l that she had been ab

ome from the drift of the conversation. She kept it as inconsequential as she could-a sort of chat hardly worth setting down except great art had been shown in it. Had Janet been a more experienced woman, and one with the firm sure touch of the conversational pilot, there might be so

plucked them or put them there. Those preferred posies, standing there apart from the crowd just like them, looked perfectly foolish. She did not understand what she had done it for. The mo

to allow, and in better condition. His suit was gray, and though somewhat worn and unfurbished, was evidently of fine quality. There was little about his attire which would have attracted attention in a Northern city except, possibly, the wide-

h such unlooked-for allusions. They had drifted into some remarks upon sheep-he

you are always glad enough, Mr. Brown, w

t is like going home nowadays. I have a house just outside

She paused a moment. "But Texans," she added, "keep the windows open so much, night an

y were Society. The very phrases of society,-even the flowers, the supper, the yawning shack,-everything, it seemed to her, was against it. It is in the nature of things; and the Devil is on

on in the world. It did not seem advisable even to tell him the nature of her errand to the county-seat; too muc

ntional question, perfunctorily put. His remarks all seemed somewhat conventional. Even these she had sometimes to evade and direct into other channels; and naturally a conversation, conducted solely with the idea of

hich she could hardly support, would take up her travels again. She talked on because there seemed no way to stop. His way of waiting for her to continue seemed quite in keeping with that deliberateness which she had already noted. What to make of it she did not kn

ch times a pleasant feeling passed over her; all her speculations and apprehensions were sunk in the atmosphere of his presence. It was a soothing effect, a personal influence which extended about him and pervaded her part of the air. As she talked on and o

talking, she confined herself to the details of that one day's experience. It seemed capable of indefinite expansion; there would never be any end unless she made it. Having supported herself in conversational flight so long, she began to feel

audience, had all

r me to be goi

ly erect as if he had been c

Going

ing-on

seventeen mi

k if-if I only

e coyotes? A

wn on her. It was as if he had ascended to the top of his stature to get a full view o

ker, a pair of boots, a tin bucket. Finally a branding-iron bounded back from the heap and fell rattling on the door-sill; then there was a sound of wiping and dusting out. Janet sat silent, her hands in her lap. In a little while he came crawling backwards out of the door and

led dryly as if this comment pleased him; and without expecting a

up the little things to suit yourself. And if there's a

obliged to you,"

'll go and finish up around the place. If you want to go to bed before I get t

apped the red cloth from the fourth and used it to light his way over to the shed. He came back, wrapped the re

, it seemed to reach new heights of aching and burning. She decided that she had better take possession of the shack at once; so she got the candle and lit it at the fire. The first thing she did

was still there. She was very tired. After sitting a while in thought, she put the corner of the red blanket over her feet and lay down, letting the candle

ch is a whisper, and before his airy finger even the desperado quails. Thus doors are stronger than they seem, and a h

en, watching that ancient m