Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/198

 "That we are not now is her fault entirely," he answered. "How is she?"

Toomey shrugged a shoulder. "If you mean physically—I should say her health was perfect. No one ever sees her. She lives out in the hills alone with her sheep and a couple of herders." "How very extraordinary!" Miss Rathburn observed languidly. "Plucky, I call it," Disston answered. "They've named her the 'Sheep Queen of Bitter Crick.'" Toomey laughed disagreeably.

"It's curious you've never mentioned her, Hughie, when you've told us about everyone else in the country."

"I didn't think you'd be interested, Beth," he answered stiffly.

Toomey changed the subject and the incident seemed forgotten, but Mrs. Rathburn's eyes rested upon Hugh frequently with a look that was inquiring and speculative.

Kate's heart always hardened and her backbone stiffened involuntarily the moment she had her first glimpse of Prouty. Invariably it had this effect upon her and today was no different from any other. Her eyes narrowed and her nerves tightened as though to meet the attack of an advancing enemy when at the edge of the bench, before she set the brake for the steep descent, she looked upon the town below her.

While her own feeling never altered and her attitude remained as implacable as the day she had sworn vengeance upon it, the bearing of the town had changed considerably. With cold inscrutable eyes she had watched open hostility and active enmity become indifference. Engrossed in its own troubles, Prouty had forgotten her, save when one of her rare visits reminded it of her ex-