Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/370

 hands, the lifted eyebrows and the exchange of mocking |p looks, the insolent eyes of Neifkins, and the final deliberate insult — she lived it all again as she stood betore the mirror calmly arranging her hair.

And Hughie! Her hands paused m mid-air. Could she ever forget that moment of agony on the stairs when she thought he was going to fail her — that he was ashamed, and a coward! But what a thoroughbred he had been! She could better appreciate now the courage it had required.

Afterward — in the moonlight — on the way home — his contrition, his sympathy, his awkward tenderness. "I love you — I'll love you as long as I live! "Her lips parted as she listened to the boyish voice — vibrating, passionate. He had come to her again and she had sent him away for the sake of the hour that was shortly to arrive. She had reached her goal. More than she had dared hope for in her wildest dreams had come to her at last. She had money, power, success, a name. A choking lump rose in her throat.

It was no longer of any use to refuse to admit it to herself — she wanted Hugh. She wanted him with all her heart and soul and strength, nothing and no one else. She threw herself upon the uninviting bed, and in the hour when she should have been exultant Kate cried.

Throughout Prouty, among the socially select, the act of dressing for the function at the Prouty House was taking place. This dinner given to Prentiss by the members of the Boosters Club was the most important event from every viewpoint that had taken place since the town was incorporated. It would show the bankrupt stockholders where they were "at," since Prentiss had reserved the announcement of his decision regarding the irrigation project for this occassion. In addition, he had asked the.