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Show CHAPTER 1 ,,,r,ie Morgan shut the front door house, locked it. chained It. , against it, her knees fluid, " h.art pounding. ' :!'.Z old 1 fool!" She choked with "The addle-headed, pathetic, -Judcnt old fool!'; H, red surged into her strong, fa. Then it ebbed a lit- she pushed back a gray wave fhair with a gesture naive and "bed She was fifty-two. A tall, rane woman with power in every '1 of her tallness. in the wide derive de-rive gentleness of her mouth, in T; steady gray eyes, her proud :'se which dominated her features "thout dwarfing them. Hcr feet sat solidly on the polled pol-led floor; her clothes, well-made i not cheap, fitted her muscular fvjy forsaking style for utility. Her Jttst' was deep and her thighs slur- . but with all this anchored stability sta-bility she was now one quivering tumult of outraged nerves. A man had asked her to marry sim and in sudden wrath, half half consternation, she ja(i put him out of her house. Now she could hear Iris car roaring jround her drive, swerving past the rhododen,drdns anc? the tall stone posts, gathering speed as it swooped Mo the descending road. Wallace Withers, whom she (had Lwii-all herilifei-going home inaj Jjge because she had slammed Ker door upon nim- Pulling herself together with some difficulty Virgie went' to the mirror, ;j straightened her collar, looked her-ell her-ell coldly up and down. ' , Her feet wavering slightly, her bead spinning, she stumbled into her library, which she still stubbornly called the "Sitting-room." A log fire burned there; there were books In autumnal colors ' along two waUs and, over the stone mantel, an en- -I ijrg'ed photograph o'f a middle-aged man with an alert, nervous, face, . black hair, and cool," calculating ' 'blue eyes. 5 Virgie looked up at this. portrait, ' wallowed : grimly' and achingly, J tightened her cold hands into fists. b. ' "You .missed a lot, David," she iij said aloud., "I reckon -it's . just as E well." ., ' i mi A door at the far end of the room d moved slightly. Virgie scowled at it Iv "Come along in, Lossie," she ,snapped.:, "If you want to listen, j; come in where you won't miss: any-te any-te thing!." - a A girl with a dull face and brassy hair waved stiffly slid into the room, :, "I heard. 'you talkin' I thought maybe you was callih' me?" it: "You-iieard me all right." Virgie ( was grim. : "1 suppose you heard ' Mr. Witherstoo? Listen to me; Los- sie Wilson if you drop a word "around Marian, you're fired you -hear me?" ' -' A "Yes'm. I wouldn't say anything HI, (or nothing, Mis' -Morgan. I didn't hear real good, anyhow. . You want ,! anything, Mis morgan: . ; .- , : ."Yes. Heat lip the coffee-pot. You haven't washed it; .1 know.- Bring , me a cup ol coffees-strong and no sugar, 'is Marian In yet?" i "No'm, she ain't yet She went to , pie second show, maybe." ) ! Virgie wandered to the window lineasily. "It;s starting y sleef ! Jgain. fShe'S got njo business' dfiv- )ng that car up thip mountain- in a-D a-D itorm." - , j. 1 "Ycs'in Dut sjpe vffi though. - It (tt: lin't lany- use ssying anything to 3! fcr." i"8 The coffee was h5t and black and. l farmed by it, Virgie Morgan y i vfi jaxed a little. Her jB.nger?had turned ;ui- hill, stiffened to., self-scorn. She m"' lad let herself get outt of control., 1 m he nad madl Wallace Withers mad. i NJhat he had made her fighting had, also, did not excuse hesr. t Ull She had known, she realized now. What was working in. Wallace With-' With-' Irs' mind for more than:a year. Sh kd known when she had gone to '"' ' dis brick house- up the river, at the time of his wile's death. - She had tarried hot home-rnade bread , and - baked ham; she had gone into the Withers' kitchen and supervised the M exciterj, whispering women there. " had made coffee for Wallace With-VE With-VE jers frid preriared his supper. I' ' WiuThis Wife, lying stony dead.and '.m.I a im nut in her best fi w .aiiut;r-eiiuwu, ,. c" iral silk, Wallace had looked at vir-' vir-' kie tnen witii approval and thought-( thought-( ful speculation in his slow, drab liW eyes. f; dis" A rich man, careful man. a man , who lusted for power; she knew now that she had seen then the birth PI an idea in Wallace Withers' mind, Wer that hot meal, that cup of cof- If1 ce lw' j And'tonight, here by her pleasant Ire the idea had emerged, full- Stowi), "ruthlessly practical, dressed Jul ' 'P in" 'tight arguments, launched in flipped, perfected phrases. 1 Wallacehad kept to his suave 1 pt, ihowever, :, wheedling,, smooth, twitching cleverly to the point that 7 j actually lurked in the back of his I The mill. Virgie' s mill. XtJ ' womanly woman no gentle, vi I Irodcr-hearted creature, his march- -rffl 8 oris averred, ought to be wor-tied wor-tied with running a pulp mill. And ""re was his timber land, up river, l'ard the gap. ' "I'll buy it if you want to sell," rfb VlrEie interrupted, tersely. But Wallace did not want to sell. bii His cys were on the mill. On the : tht David Morgan had built m Virgie tiad run successfully ver |