Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/105

Rh after some consultation four ferns were selected. The visitor was amazed at their cheapness, but concealed her astonishment. Then she bought three dozen jars of the jam. She did not pay for them, but said that on the following day she would send the money by a messenger, who would also bring away the purchases.

Standing in the doorway, about to leave, she said:

"I 'm glad to have seen you. It 's so interesting for a person like me, who can't do anything, to meet some one who is clever and of use in the world. Good-by!" She held out her hand, and Viola, surprised, put hers into it. "Don't forget to keep our secret. It makes a person feel like a conspirator, does n't it? I think, too, Colonel Reed 's quite right to want to be reticent about business matters. So you and I 'll keep dark about this little transaction of ours."

This was the most diplomatic sentence Letitia had ever given vent to in her life.

She walked slowly away from the house, her eyes downcast in thought. The superb health she had inherited from an untainted peasant ancestry made her imagination dull, and lightened such sufferings as she had encountered in her easy, care-free life. Even now she experienced none of those fierce pangs that jealousy and disappointed love provoke in the women