Page 76 (1/1)

"Dad, mother told me before she died that the Isbels had ruined you," said Ellen, very low It hurt her so to see her father cover his face that she could hardly go on "If they ruined you they ruined all of us I knoe had once--e lost again and again--and I see e are coht me to hate the very name But I never kne they ruined you--or why--or when And I want to kno"

Then it was not the face of a liar that Jorth disclosed The present was forgotten He lived in the past He even see flash of hate that ave him back the spirit of his youth

"Gaston Isbel an' I were boys together in Weston, Texas," began Jorth, in swift, passionate voice "We went to school together We loved the saed to Isbel His family was rich They influenced her people But she loved me When Isbel went to war she et that Your mother confessed her unfaithfulness--by Heaven! She taunted him with it Isbel accusedout of that

"Isbel never forgave her an' he hounded me to ruin He raced Later he tangled me in the courts--he beat me out of property--an' last by convictin' me of rustlin' cattle he run me out of Texas"

Black and distorted now, Jorth's face was a spectacle to make Ellen sick with a terrible passion of despair and hate The truth of her father's ruin and her oere enough What , nerveless hands that seenificant for their lack of physical force

"An' so help ot to be wiped out in blood!" he hissed

That was his answer to the wavering and nobility of Ellen And she in her turn had no answer to make She crept away into the corner behind the curtain, and there on her couch in the se, unconquerable tumult in her mind And she lay there fro

When she awakened she expected to be unable to rise--she hoped she could not--but life see young and sweet and hopeful that had been in her did not greet the sun thisIn their place was a woman's passion to learn for herself, to watch events, to meet what must come, to survive