Her head was covered with a small, battered mans
hatof soft brown felt.
Murray,clerk of the county court and of the school
district, wassecretary-treasurer.
No, mother, Mary had said with the same weary
voice.
He was clad in adark suit of nondescript colour,
with a cap on his tousled, ash-blond hair. He had reached for her waist; she had
sunk into his arms. I respect him morethan any man I know, she said
demurely.
I wish, Henrietta said irritably to Cathleen, youd
quit eyingthat yard of Johns. You hitch those horses up again, do you hear? Even
when we girls were grown up, there was infathers manner to you something left of the
lover. In the bevy ofrustic belles she had struck him by her air of exotic
refinement. Cathleen exclaimed half laughing, half indignant, you area veritable
caricature!
Sately himselfmight be arrested at any time. Mary
had shrugged her shoulders, wearily disengaging herself fromher mothers arms. The
horse, an ancientracer, turned prancing and shot into the star-lit
dark.
When father spoke toyou, even when he was angry,
there was still a reserve.
She turned east, climbing the steep, stony
hill-side. A low, masterful laugh greeted the reply. He drew her to him and kissed
her on mouth and eyes.
Because, since I had known you, a new ideal
ofmanhood had come to me. The children were going their own way; they could not be
stopped.
Mary and Gladys had gone; Cathleen and Isabel
weregoing. Even that small effortdeprived her of her breath.
His impulse to be friendly with any Elliot
stillpersisted; and he drew his horses to a stop.
You said once that married life is a
compromise.
Sately himselfmight be arrested at any
time.
In town, John junior sat in a stall of the Rex
Cafe.
You must know, Miss Lillian, that I consider my
mother the bestwoman that ever lived. The only difference is that he comes to my bed
at night asif he had a right to be there.
No, she, Henrietta, wanted to see what she was
going into beforeshe accepted. And he went forward and droppedthe tongue of the
buggy to the road. Shespent, on her wardrobe, sums which seemed fabulous to Isabel
andHenrietta.
Mother, I have been alone all through these
years.
True, in married life things did not come out as
one wished andhoped for.
In the small hall on the ground floor they halted.
Then, with a curious sound from her throat, Mary flung her armsabout her mothers
neck. On his way to the buggy, Fred scanned the windows of the house.