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A flush of pleased vanity reddened Jinnie's skin to the tips of her ears, and she scrambled to her feet. Then she paused, a solemn expression shadowing her eyes. "Bobbie," she spoke soberly, "now I found you, you belong to me, don't you?" Bobbie thrust forth his hands. "Yes, yes," he breathed. "Then from now on, from this minute, I'm going to work for you."
Matty then had gone to join those who, when they were called, had no choice but to answer. She leaned against the soft cushions moodily. She was harking back to other days, and Molly permitted her to remain silent for some time. "You must have people of your own you could live with," she resumed presently. "It's wrong for a girl with your money " Jinnie's lovely mouth set at the corners.
If Theodore had been watching Molly's face, he would have noted how its expression changed darkly. But, humming a tune, he went into the house unconcernedly, and Molly recognized the rhythm as one Jinnie had played that night long ago with Peg Grandoken's lace curtains draped about her. Jinnie's youth, her bright blue eyes, her wonderful talent, Molly hated, and hated cordially.
Presently the girl, with tears in her eyes, said softly: "And Matty, old Matty?" "Who's Matty?" interjected Molly. "The black woman who took care of me. She lived with me for ever so long." Molly didn't reply for some time. Then: "I think she died; at least I heard she did." A cold shudder ran over Jinnie's body.
It expressed the awakening of the girl's soul awakened by the touch of a man's turbulent lips Jinnie's God-given man. Her fiddle knew it felt it expressed it! With that first seductive kiss the soul-stirring melody was full born within her, as a world is called into the firmament by one spoken word of God.
She gasped once, twice, and her head fell upon his breast, and for a moment she lay wrapped in her youthful modesty as in a mantle. "Kiss me, Jinnie," Theodore murmured entreatingly. She buried her head closer against him. "Kiss me," he insisted, drawing her face upward. His lips fell upon hers, and Jinnie's eyes closed under the magic of her first kiss.
Jinnie's imagination called up the loathsome thing he mentioned and terrified her to numbness. At that moment she understood what her father had written in that sealed letter to Lafe Grandoken. But she couldn't allow her mind to dwell upon his threat against herself. "What'd you mean when you said I could save my friends?" "You're fond of Mrs. Grandoken, aren't you?"
"I couldn't now, not now. But I have to live with Lafe Grandoken quite a long time yet." "You ran away from your home?" "Yes." "Your father died the same night you came away." "Yes, and please, what happened after I left?" "Oh, he was buried, and the house is empty." Molly forebore to mention Jordan Morse, and Jinnie's tongue refused to utter the terrifying name.
"I wanted to see your uncle to-day," he explained, without waiting for the question which he read in Jinnie's eyes, "so I came over myself instead of sending Bennett.... There, child! Don't tremble so! Never mind the wood." Jinnie hung back. "I've got to sell it to you this afternoon," she murmured brokenly. "Peg's got to have the money."
The woman smiled sweetly and drove to the edge of the pavement. "Good afternoon," she greeted Jinnie. "Won't you take a little ride with me? I'll drive you home afterwards." Jinnie's heart bounded. As yet Molly had not discovered her identity, and the girl, in spite of Lafe's caution, wanted to know all that had passed in Mottville after she left.
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