Page 94 (1/1)
At Jane Withersteen's home the proun to be fulfilled Like a glea of the child to the gloo, silent halls echoed with childish laughter In the shady court, where Jane spent many of the hot July days, Fay's tiny feet pattered over the stone flags and splashed in the amber streaht, a child made in her home! It had never been a real home, she discovered Even the tidiness and neatness she had so observed, and upon which she had insisted to her woht of Fay's smile, habits that now lost their importance Fay littered the court with Jane's books and papers, and other toys her fancy i down the little brook
And it ing to Fay's presence that Jane Withersteen came to see more of Lassiter The rider had for the e He rode for her, but he did not seek her except on business; and Jane had to acknowledge in pique that her overtures had been made in vain Fay, however, captured Lassiter the moment he first laid eyes on her
Jane was present at the ht and softened her toward this foe of her people The rider had clanked into the court, a tired yet waryfor the attack upon hiht coht upon little Fay The child had been beautiful even in her rags and ae, but now, in a pretty white dress, with her shining curls brushed and her face clean and rosy, she was lovely She left her play and looked up at Lassiter
If there was not an instinct for all three of the tendency toward a closer intimacy, then Jane Withersteen believed she had been subject to a queer fancy
She iined any child would have feared Lassiter And Fay Larkin had been a lonely, a solitary elf of the sage, not at all an ordinary child, and exquisitely shy with strangers She watched Lassiter with great, round, grave eyes, but showed no fear The rider gave Jane a favorable report of cattle and horses; and as he took the seat to which she invited hied as much as half an inch nearer Jane replied to his look of inquiry and told Fay's story The rider's gray, earnest gaze troubled her Then he turned to Fay and smiled in a way that s How could Lassiter smile so at a child when he had made so entleness she had seen a few ti that was infinitely sad and sweet