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Show jj The Brandinq iron i: Bij Katharine Ketulin Burl f . . Copyright by Katharin N. Burt CHAPTER I Continued. 13 This young woman by the fireplace had Just that panther-air of perilous quietness. She was very haggard, very thin ; she wore her massive hlack hair drawn away hideously from brow and temple, and "out of this lean, unshaded un-shaded face a pair of deep eyes looked drowsily, dangerously. Her mouth was straightened Into an expression of proud bitterness, her. round chin thrust forward; there '..was a deep, scowling line that rose from the bridge of tit. straight, short nose almost al-most to the roots of her hair. It cut across a splendidly modeled brow. She i Was very graceful, If such a bundle of bones might be said to have any grace. Her pose was arreting. There was a tragic force and attraction about her. The man by the door appraised her carefully between his narrowed lids. He kept In mind the remembered melody mel-ody of her voice, and, after a few moments, he strolled across the floor and came up to her. "Will you dance?" he said, lie had a very charming and subtle smile, a very charming and sympathetic sympa-thetic look. The woman was startled, color rose Into her face. She stared at hi in. "I'm not dnnclng, Mr. Morena," she answered. "You know , my name," smiled Morena; Mo-rena; "and I don't know yours. I've been en Mr. Yamnll's ranch for a month. Why haven't I seen you?" "Fer not lookin', I suppose." She had given him that one startled glance, and now she had turned her eyes chair before an open flre, smoking a cigarette. , She was a short woman, so slenderly, even narrowly built, hs to appear overgrown, and she was a mature ma-ture woman so Inmiaturely shaped and featured as to appear hardly more than a child. Her curly russet hair was parted at the side, her wide, long-lashed long-lashed eyes were set far apart, her nose was really a finely modeled snub more, a boy's nose even to a light sprinkling of freckles and her mouth was provoklngly the soft, red mouth of a sorrowful child. She lounged far down In her chair, her slight legs, clad In riding-breeches of perfect cut, stretched out straight, her Umber arms along the arms of the chair, her chin sunk on her flat chest, and her big, clear eyes 6tarlng Into the fire. It was an odd figure of a wife for Jasper Morena, a Jew Of thirty-eight, producer and manager of plays. When Betty Kane had run away with him there had been lamentation and ruge in the houses of Kane and Morena. To the pride of an old Hebrew He-brew family, the marriage even of this wandering sun with a Gentile was fully as degrading as to the pride of the old Tory family was the marriage with a Jew. Her perverse Gaelic blood, on fire with the Insults heaped upon her lover, Hetty, seventeen years old, romantic, clever, would have walked over flint to give her hand to him. That was ten years ago. Now, when Jasper eiinie Into her room, she drew her quick brows together, puffed at her cigarette, and blinked as though she was looking at something distasteful dis-tasteful and at the same time rather alarming. ly unlaced her heuvy, kuee-hlgh boots, took them off, and began to walk to and fro on stocking feet, bands clasped behind her back. With her curly hair all about her face and shoulders, she looked like a wild, extravagantly naughty schoolgirl, girl In a wicked temper, a rebel against authority. In fact, she was rejoicing that this horrible hor-rible enforced visit to the West was all but over. One week morel She was almost at an end of her endurance. endur-ance. How she hated the beautiful white night outside, those mountain peaks, the souud of that rapid river, the stillness of sagebrush, the voice of the big pines I What a malevolent trick -of fate that Jasper should have brought her to Wyoming, that the doctor doc-tor had Insisted upon at least a month of Just this life. "Take her west." he had said, and Hetty, lying Ump and white In her bed, her small head sunk Into the pillow, had Jerked from head to foot. "Tuke her west. I know a ranch In Wyoming Yarnall's. She'll get outdoor exercise, tonic air. sound sleep, release from all these pestiferous pestifer-ous details, like a cloud of flies, that sting women's nerves to death. Don't pay any attention to whether she likes it or not. Let her behave like a naughty child, let her kick and scream and cry. Pick her up, Morena, and carry her off. Do you hear? Don't let her make you change your plans." The doctor had seen his patient's convulsive con-vulsive Jerk. "Hack her up. Make your reservations and go straight -to TliKk' YnrnuH's ranch, Lazy-Y that's Ills brand, I believe Middle Fork, Wyoming. I'll send him a wire. He knows me. She needs hII outdoors to back to tlie dancers and wore a grim, contemptuous air. Her speeches, though they were cut Into short, crisp words, were full of music of a sharp, metallic quality different from the tone of her other speech, but quite as beautifully expressive. "May I smoke?" asked Morena. He was still smiling his charming smile and watching her out of the corners of his eyes. "I'm not hlnderln' you any," said she. Mnrena smiled deeper, ne took some time making and lighting his cigarette. "You don't smoke yourself?" he asked. "No." "Nor dance?" "No." "Nor behave prettily to polite young men?" Again the woman looked at him. "You ain't so, awful young, are you?" He laughed aloud. "I amuse you, don't I? Well, I'm not always so all-fired funny," drawled the creature, lowering her head a little. "No. I've board that you're not. You rather run things here. I gather; got the hoys 'plumb senred'?" "Did Mr. Ynrnnll tell you that?" "Yes. I've Just In the last few minutes min-utes remembered who you are. You're Jnne. You cook for the 'outfit,' and Yarnall was telling us the other night how he sent one of the boys out for a cook, the last one, a man. having been beaten up, and how the boy had brought you back behind him on Ills saddle. He said you'd kept order for hlm ever since, were, better than a fnremnn. Who w as the man you threw out tonight?" "Perhaps," drawled Jane, "he was Just a feller who asked too many questions?" Again Morena's smile deepened into bis checks. "You must pardon me. Miss Jane," he snld In his murmuring, cultivated cul-tivated voice. "You see, I've had a great misfortune. Tve never been In your West. I've lived In New York, "Have they stopped dancing, Jasper?" Jas-per?" she asked In a voice Unit was at once brusque and soft. Jasper rubbed his hands delightedly, lie was, st 111 merry, and came to stand near the flre, looking down nt her with eyes entirely kind and admiring. "Have you ever noticed June, who cooks for the outfit, Betty?" "Yes. She's horrible." "She's extraordinary, and I menn to get hold of her for Luck's piny. Did you read it?" "Yes." "The play Is absolutely dependent on the leading part and I have found It simply Impossible to fill. Now, here's a woman of extraordinary grace and beauty " Hetty lifted skeptical eyebrows, twisted her limber mouth, but forbore to contradict. "And with a mnglcnl voice a woman wom-an who not only looks the part, but Is It. You remember Luck's heroine?" Betty flicked off the nsh of her cigarette ciga-rette and looked away. "A savage, isn't she? The man has her tamed, takes her back to London, and there gives her cause for Jealousy and she springs on hlm yes, I remember. Tills woman, Jane, is absolutely without with-out education and hasn't a notion of acting, I suppose." Jasper rubbed his hands with Increased In-creased delight. "Not a notion and she murders the king's English. But she is Luck's savage and In spite of your eyebrows, Hetty she Is beautiful. beauti-ful. I can school her. It will take money, no end of patience, but I can do It. It's one of the things I can do. But, of course, there's the Initial difficulty of persuading her to try It." "That oughtn't to lie any difficulty at all. or course she'll Jump at the chance." "I'm not so sure. She was ready to throw me out of the kitchen tonight. She Is really a virago. Do you know what one of the men said about her?" Jasper laughed and Imitated the gentle western drawl. "Jane's plumb movln' to me. She's about halfway between run about In. She needs Joggln' around j all day through the' sagebrush on a cow-pony In that sun; she needs the smell of a camp-fire Gad I wish I could get back to It myself." Betty, having heard this out, began to laugh. She laughed till they gave her something to keep her quiet. But, except for that laughter, she had made no protest whatever; she did not "kick and scream and cry." In fact, though she looked like a child, she was not at all inclined to such exhibitions. This doctor had not seen her through her recent ordeal. Two years before her breakdown, Jasper hnd been terribly hurt In an automobile accident, and Hetty had come to him at the hospitul, hud waited, as white as a snow-image, for the result of the examination. They had told her emphatically that there was no hope. Jasper Morena could not live for more than a few days. She must not allow herself to hope. He might or might not regain consciousness. Betty had listened with her white, rigid, child face, had thanked them, hud gone home. There in her exquisite, ex-quisite, little sitting room above Central Cen-tral purk, she had sat at her desk and written a few lines on gruy note paper. "Jasper Is dying," she had written. "By the time you get this, he will be dead. If you can forgive me for having hav-ing fulled In courage hist year, come back. What I have been to you before I will be again, only, this time we can love openly. Come back." I Then she had dropped her head on ' the desk and cried. Afterward she had addressed her letter to a certain Prosper Gael. The letter went to Wyoming. Three days Inter Jasper regained consciousness and began slowly to return re-turn to health. He hnd the tenacious vitality of his race, and, In bis own spirit, an Iron will to live. He kept Betty beside his bed for hours, und held her cold hand In his long sensitive sensi-tive one, and he stared at her under hlo lashes till she thought she must go mad. But she did not. She nursed hlm through un Interminable convalescence. con-valescence. She received Prosper, very early In this convalescence, by her husband's bed, and Jasper had murmured gratitude for the emotion that threatened to overwhelm his friend. It was not till some time an extraordinarily long time after Morena's Mo-rena's complete recovery that she had snapped like a broken Icicle. And then, forsooth, they had sent her to Wyoming to get back her health! Having paced away some of hei restlessness, Hetty stopped by the cabin window und pushed aside one of the short, calico curtains. She looked out on the court. A tall woman bad Just pulled up a bucket of water from the well and had emptied I' into a pitcher. She finished, "let the bucket drop with a whirr and a clash, and raised l.er head. For a second she and Jasper Morena's wife looked at each other. Betty nodded, smiled, and drew the curtain close. (TO BIS CONTINUED.) where pood manners nnven i nine r space to flourish. I hadn't the least intentlen of being Impertinent Do you want nie to ro?" He moved as If to leave her, and she did not lift a (inner to detnln hlm. "I'm not enrln'. Do as you please," she said with entire Indifference. "Oh," snld Morena, looking back at her, "I don't stay where people are not cnrlnV" She gave him an extraordinarily Intelligent In-telligent look. "I should say that's the only place you'd be wantln' to stay In at all where you're not exactly urged to come," she snld. Morena flushed snd his lids flickered. flick-ered. He was for an Instant absurdly Inclined to anger and made two or three steps away. Hut he came back. lie bowed and spoke as he would have spoken to a great lady, suavely, deferentially. "fioodnlght. I wish I could think that you have enjoyed our talk as grently as 1 have. Miss Jane. I should very much like to he allowed to repeat re-peat It. May I h" stupidly personal and fell you that you ore very beautiful?" beau-tiful?" lie bowed, gave her an uii-wnrd uii-wnrd look and went out. finding his way cleverly among the dnncer. Outside. In the moonlit court, he Ktood, threw buck hi bend nnd laughed, not loudly but ron!imedl.v. He nn remembering her white fuee of flinte astonishment. She looked almost as If his compliment had given her slmrp pnln. Morena went laughing to his room In the opposite wing. lie wanted to describe the Interview to his wife. Betty Mnrena was sitting In a rustic 'You go to h P and 'You take me In your arms to rest.'" Hetty smiled. Her smile was vastly more mature than her appearance. It was clever and cynical and cold. The Oriental, looking down nt l.er, lost his merriment. "Do you feel better, dear?" he asked timidly". "Oo you think you will be able to go back next week?" She stood up as he came nearer and walked over to the little table that played the nr of dressing table under a wavy mirror. "Oh, yes. I nm quite well. I don't think the doc-tors doc-tors have much sense. I'm sure I hadn't nnythlng like a nervous breakdown. break-down. I was Just tired nut." Jasper drew back the hand whose touch she hud eluded, and nervously, his long supple fingers a little unsteady, un-steady, lighted a cigarette. At that moment be did not look like n spider, but like a lover who has been hurt. P.eity could see In the mirror a distorted dis-torted Image of his dejected gracefulness, graceful-ness, but. entirely unmoved, she put np her thin, brown bands nnd began lo take the pins out of her hair. "I like your .lane experiment," she snld. "Let me know how you get on with It and whether 1 can help. I slii.il have to turn In now. I'm dead beat. Yarnall took me halfway up the mountain moun-tain and hack, (londniglit." Jasper looked at her, then pressed his Hps Into a straight line and went to the door which led fi i her bedroom bed-room to his. lie snld "goodnight" In a low tone, jjl.ir I at her over bin shoulder, and went out. Hetty waited un Instant, then slow, |