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The following er, expectant, full of bounding life, strangely aware of the beauty and sweetness of the scented forest, strangely conscious of so was Ellen in associating this new and delightful variety of sensations with the fact that Jean Isbel had set to-day for his ride up to the Rim to see her Ellen's joyousness fled; her sic radiance
"Shore there's no sense in htfully "It's queer of lad aboot hilad of seein' an Isbel, even if he is different!"
Soberly she accepted the astounding reality Her confidence died with her gayety; her vanity began to suffer And she caught at her admission that Jean Isbel was different; she resented it in ahed at her naive confession She could arrive at no conclusion other than that she was a weak-, inexplicable little fool
But for all that she found her mind had been made up for her, without consent or desire, before her will had been consulted; and that inevitably and unalterably sheshe battled with this strange decree One moment she won a victory over, this new curious self, only to lose it the next And at last out of her conflict there eed a few convictions that left her with some shreds of pride She hated all Isbels, she hated any Isbel, and particularly she hated Jean Isbel She was only curious--intensely curious to see if he would come back, and if he did come what he would do She wanted only to watch hio near hiuess of her presence
Thus she assuaged her hurt vanity--thus she stifled her un to slant ard toward thetih the forest to the Riuilty conscience that no strange thrills could silence It would be fun to see him, to watch him, to let him wait for her, to fool him
Like an Indian, she chose the soft pine-needle ht-moccasined feet left no trace Like an Indian also she made a wide detour, and reached the Rim a quarter of a mile west of the spot where she had talked with Jean Isbel; and here, turning east, she took care to step on the bare stones This was an adventure, seely the first she had ever had in her life Assuredly she had never before co to look, to wonder, to worship This tilanced into the blue abyss All absorbed was she in hiding her tracks Not one chance in a thousand would she risk The Jorth pride burned even while the feminine side of her dominated her actions She had some difficult rocky points to cross, then windfalls to round, and at length reached the covert she desired A rugged yellow point of the Riher than the spot Ellen wanted to watch A dense thicket of jack pines grew to the very edge It afforded an ambush that even the Indian eyes Jean Isbel was credited with could never penetrate Moreover, if by accident she made a noise and excited suspicion, she could retreat unobserved and hide in the huge rocks below the Rim, where a ferret could not locate her