Show PS north orth of fifty 41 three thre BY BERTRAND W SINCLAIR copyright little brown co CHAPTER ill continued 3 it you dont like my manner y barrow arrow retorted stormily storm lly then he cut his sentence in two and glared at her the twin devils of jealousy and distrust were riding him hard and it unshed flashed over hazel that in ills his mind she was prejudged land and that her explanation if she made it would only add fuel to the flame she turned abruptly and left him what did it matter anyway she was too proud to plead and it was worse than useless to explain even so womanlike she listened expecting to hear jacks step hurrying up behind she could not imagine him let letting lingher her go like that but lie ho did not come and when at a distance of two mocks blocks she stole a backward glance lie had disappeared she returned to the boarding house the parlor door stood wide and the curious quickly averted glance of a girl she knew sent her quivering up to her room there was only one cheerful gleam she loved jack barrow she believed that aliat he loved her and she could not believe she could not conceive him capable of keeping aloof obdurate and unforgiving once lie ho got out of the black mood he was in she was still sitting by the window watching the yellow crimson of the sunset when someone rapped at her door A uniformed messenger boy greeted her when she opened it rac package kage for miss hazel weir she signed the delivery sheet the address on the package was iu in jacks handwriting A box bos of chocolates or some peace maybe that was like jack when he was sorry for anything they had quarreled before over trifles too i 1 she opened it hastily A swift heart sinking followed in the small cardboard box bos rested a folded scarf and thrust in it a small gold stickpin the only thing she had ever given jack barrow there was no message she needed none to understand I 1 I 1 the sparkle of the small diamond on her finger drew her gaze she worked his ring over the knuckle and dropped it on the dresser where the face in the silver frame smiled up at her she stared at the picture for one long minute fixedly with unchanging impression and suddenly she swept sweat it from the dresser with a savage sweep of her hand dashed it on the floor and stamped it shapeless with her heel I 1 oil oh oh she gasped 1 I hate you I 1 hate you I 1 I 1 despise you and then she flung herself across the bed and sobbed hysterically into a pillow through the night hazel dozed fitfully waking out of uneasy sleep to lie staring wide mide eyed into the dark every nerve in her body taut her mind abnormally active grief and finger anger A ol 01 11 fill flung herself across the bed and sobbed hysterically into a pillow by turns mastered her and at daybreak she rose heavy lidded and physically weary the first thing thin upon which her gaze alighted was the crumpled photo in its shattered frame and sitting on the side ot of her bed she laughed at the sudden fury in which she had destroyed it but there was no mirth in her laughter she gather gathered fd up the bits of broken glass and the bent frame and put them in a I 1 drawer dressed herself and went down to lo breakfast slie she was too deeply engrossed in her own troubles to notice or care whether any subtle change was becoming manifest in the attitude ot of her fellow boarders the worst she felt sure had bad already overtaken her she had hac a little irae ime to spare and that time she devoted to making up a package of barrows ring and ft few other trinkets which lie he had given her this she addressed to ills his office and posted while on her way to work she got through the day somehow oln struggling against thoughts that ji WOM would d persist in creeping into her mind and stirring up emotions that she was determined ter mined to hold in check work she knew kew was her only salvation and so she got through the week saturday evening came and she went home dreading sundays idleness with its memories the people at mrs stouts establishment she plainly saw were growing a trifle shy of her she had never been on terms of intimacy with any of them during her stay there hence their attitude atti tode troubled little after the first wore off but her own friends girls with whom she had played in the pinafore and pigtail stages of her youth young men who had paid court to her until jack barrow monopolized her she did not know how they stood she had seen none of them since bush launched his last bolt barrow she had passed on the street just once and when he lifted his hat distantly she looked straight ahead and ignored him whether she hurt him as much as she did herself by the cut direct would be hard to say when sunday noon arrived and the phone had failed to call her once and not one of fill all her friends had dropped in hazel twisted her chair so that she could stare at the image of herself in the mirror youre in a fair way to become a pariah jailah it seems she said bitterly what have you done I 1 wonder that youve lost your lover over and that alice and may and hortense II ortense and nil all the rest of them keep away from you not nothing not a thing except that your looks attracted a man and the man threw stones when he have his way oh well the difference youve got two good hands and youre not afraid of work she walked out to granville park after luncheon and found a seat on a shaded bench beside the lake people passed and rc re passed couples youngsters old people children it made her lonely beyond measure she had never dever been isolated among her own kind before A group of young people came sauntering along the path hazel looked up as they neared her chattering to each other maud steele asleele and bud wells and why she knew every one of the party hazel caught her breath as chef came abreast not over ten feet away the three young men raised nello hello nazell hazell the girl said but they passed on it seemed to hazel that they quickened their pace a trine trifle it made her grit her teeth in resentful anger teri ten minutes later she left the park and caught a car home once in her room she broke down oh ill il I 1 go mad it if I 1 stay here find and this sort of thing goes on she cried forlornly A sudden thought struck her why should I 1 stay here she said aloud why to keep me here bere I 1 jean can make my living anywhere but no she asserted passionately 1 I wont run away that would be running away and I 1 anything to be ashamed of I 1 will not run still the idea kept recurring to her it promised relief from the hurt of averted faces aces and coolness where she had a right to expect sympathy and the legal notice of the bequest was mailed to her she tore up the letter and threw it in the fire as it if it were some poisonous thing the idea of accepting his money stirred her to perfect frenzy it if she could have poured the whole miserable tale talc into some sympathetic ear she would have felt better and each day would have seemed less hard but there was no such ear her friends kept away allay saturday of the second week her pay envelope contained a u brief notice that the firm no longer required lir her services there was no explanation only perfunctory regrets find and truth to tell nazel hazel cared little to know the real cause any one of a number of reasons might have been sufficient clent but she realized how those who knew her would take it what cause they would ascribe it did not matter though the very worst she reasoned could not be so bad as what had already happened could be no more disagreeable than the things she had endured in the past two weeks losing a position was a trifle but it set her thinking again she stopped at a news stand and bought the evening papers up in the top rack of the stand the big heads of an assorted lot of western papers caught her eye she bought two or three on the impulse of the moment without any definite purpose except to look them over out ol of mere curiosity with these tucked under her arm she turned into the boardinghouse gate ran up the steps and an dupon upon opening the door her ears were gladdened by the first friendly voice she had heard it seemed to lier her in ages a voice withal that she had least ex then she turned to the help wanted advertisements pecked to hear A short plump woman rushed out of the parlor and precipitated herself bodily upon hazel kitty ryail where in the tha wide w wide ide world did you come from nazel hazel cried from the united states and everywhere miss ryan replied take me up to your room dear where we can talk our heads off and furthermore hazle ill be pleased to have you address me as ag mrs brooks my dear young woman woman the plump lady laughed as she settled herself in a chair in hazels room so youre married nazel hazel said 1 I fam am that mrs kitty responded emphatically to the best boy that ever drew breath and so should you be dear girl I 1 dont see how youve escaped so long a good looking girl like you the boys were always crazy after you yon theres nothing like having ang a good man to tal take e care of you dear heaven II eaven save me from them hazel answered bitterly it if youve g got ot one youre lucky I 1 cant see them as anything but self centered arrogant treacherous brutes lord bless us its worse than I 1 thought 1 kitty jumped up and threw her arms around hazel there there dont waste a tear on them I 1 know all about it I 1 came over to see you just as soon as some of the girls nasty little cats they are a womans comans always menner meaner than a man dear just is as soon as they gave me an inkling of how things were going with you pshaw the worlds full of good decent fellows and youve got one coming it if had my experience of the last two weeks sing a different tune nazel hazel vehemently declared 1 I hate I 1 and then ahe be gave way and indulged in the luxury of turning herself loose on kultys kittys shoulder presently slie she was able to wipe her eyes and relate the whole story from the sunday sir mr bush stopped slopped lind and spoke to her in the hie park down to that evening kitty nodded understandingly but the girls have handed it to you worse than the men hazel mie lie observed sagely bagely jack barrow was just plain crazy jealous find and a man like that cant help acting as lie he did youre really fortunate I 1 think because not be really happy nith a m man an like that but the girls that you and I 1 grew up with they should have stood by you know ing you as they did bet i et you on see they were ready to think the worst of you they nearly always do when theres a man in the case a weakness of our sex ses dear well you arent working come and stay with me hubbes got a two year contract with the world advertising company well be located here that long at least come and stay with us oh no I 1 think of that Kit kitty tyll 1 hazel faltered you know rd id love to and its awfully good of you but I 1 think im just about ready to go away from grauville granville well come and stop with us till til you do go kitty insisted we are going to take a furnished cottage tor a while though between you and me dear knowing people ns as I 1 do I 1 cant blame you yon for wanting to be where their nasty tongues cant wound you but hazel was obdurate she would not inflict indict herself on the one friend she had left and lutty kitty fitter after a short talk berated her affectionately for her independence and rose to go for said she 1 I get hold of this thing till addle horton called at the hotel this afternoon and I 1 stop to think that it was near teatime but u came S straight here Jimmie II think eloped so tata ta ta ill come out tomorrow about two I 1 have to confab with a house agent in the forenoon by by hazel sat down and actually smiled when kitty was somehow a grievous burden had bad fallen off her mind likewise by some psychological quirk the idea of leaving granville and making her home elsewhere no longer struck her as running away under fire she felt that she could adventure forth among strangers in a strange country with a better heart knowing that kitty brooks would put a swift quietus on any gossip that came her way so that hazel went down to the dining room lightheartedly light heartedly and when the meal was finished came back ani and tell fell to rending reading her papers the first of the western papers was a vancouver world in a real estate mans half page she found a diminutive sketch plan of the city on the shores of bur rard inlet canadas principal outpost on the far pacific its ICs quite a big place she murmured absently one would be far enough away there goodness knows then she turned to the help wanted advertisements and down near the bottom of the column she happened on an inquiry for a schoolteacher female preferred in tin an out of the way district in the interior of the province now that hazel thought she had a second class certificate tucked away amon among her belongings originally it had been her intention to teach and she had done so BO one term in a backwoods school when she was eighteen with the ending of the term she had returned to granville studied that winter and got her second certificate but at the same time she had bad taken a business college course and the following june found her clack ing a typewriter at nine dollars a week and her teachers diploma had bad remained in the bottom of her trunk ever since unaccountably since ritty kitty brooks visit she found herself itching to turn her back on granville and its unpleasant associations she did not attempt to analyze the feeling strange lands and most of all the west held alluring promise one thing was certain granville tor for all she had been born there and grown to womanhood there was now no place for her the very people who knew her best would make her suffer most she spent that evening going thoroughly over the papers and writing letters to various schoot boards taking a chance at one or two she found in the manitoba paper but centering her hopes on the country west of the her savings in the bank amounted to three hundred odd dollars and cash in hand bro brought tight the sum suin to a total of three hundred and sixty five at any rate she had sufficient to insure her living for quite a long time and she went to bed feeling better than she had felt for two weeks very shortly thereafter almost it seemed by return niall mall hazel got replies to her letters of inquiry the tact fact that each and every one seemed bent on securing her services astonished her but the reply from caribou meadows 13 C the first place she had thought of decided her the member of the school board who replied held forth the natural beauty of the country as much as he lid did the advantages of the position the thing that perhaps made the strongest appeal appeal to ila iia zel was a little kodak print in the letter showing the schoolhouse the building itself was primitive enough of logs with a pole and sod roof but it ft was the huge background the timbered mountains rising to snow snowe clad lad heights against a cloudless sky that attracted her she sat for a long time looking nt at the picture thinking here was the concrete visible presentment of something that drew her strongly she found an atlas and looked up carl cari boo meadows on the map it was not to be found and alakel judged it to be a purely local name but the letter told her that she would have to stage it a hundred lind sixty five miles north front from ashcroft Asli croft 13 C where the writer would meet her and drive her to the meadows meadow what a country she whispered its wild really truly wild and everything ery cry thing ive ever seen has been tamed and smoothed down on and made eminently respectable und conventional long iong ago the place that s where im going and im going it blind im not going to tell anyone not even kitty until like a bear ive gone over the mountain to see sec what b t I 1 ca can n see 1 within an hour four of that miss hazel weir |