Page 9 (1/1)

"Come"

She led the ith the bridle of Lassiter's horse over her arrove and walked doide path shaded by great low-branching cottonwoods The last rays of the setting sun sent golden bars through the leaves The grass was deep and rich, welco quail darted across the path, and fro, and on the still air floated the freshness andwater

The home of Jane Withersteen stood in a circle of cottonwoods, and was a flat, long, red-stone structure with a covered court in the center through which flowed a lively stream of amber-colored water In the massive blocks of stone and heavy timbers and solid doors and shutters showed the hand of a e and ti the stone-bedded streas and blankets on the court floor, and the cozy corner with harace of a daughter who lived for happiness and the day at hand

Jane turned Lassiter's horse loose in the thick grass "You ant him to be near you," she said, "or I'd have him taken to the alfalfa fields" At her call appeared wo to and fro, setting the table Then Jane, excusing herself, ithin

She passed through a huge low ceiled chamber, like the inside of a fort, and into a sht wood-fire blazed in an old open fireplace, and from this into her own room It had the same comfort as was manifested in the home-like outer court; moreover, it arm and rich in soft hues

Seldo into her mirror She knew she loved the reflection of that beauty which since early childhood she had never been allowed to forget

Her relatives and friends, and later a horde of Mormon and Gentile suitors, had fanned the flaht she scarcely thought at all of her wonderful influence for good in the little community where her father had left her practically its beneficent landlord, but cared most for the dream and the assurance and the allurelass with ht conscious s of more than the desire to be fair in her own eyes, in those of her friend; she wondered if she were to seem fair in the eyes of this Lassiter, this , wild brakes of stone and plains of sage, this gentle-voiced, sad-faced man as a hater and a killer of Mormons It was not now her usual half-conscious vain obsession that actuated her as she hurriedly changed her riding-dress to one of white, and then looked long at the stately for chin and full firm lips, at the dark-blue, proud, and passionate eyes