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After that Floyd married the lovely Fledra Martindale, and a year later his twin children were born a sturdy boy and a tiny girl. The children were nearly a year old when Fledra Vandecar whispered another secret to her husband, and Vandecar, lover-like, had gathered his darling into his arms, as if to hold her against any harm that might come to her.
I must make a move to separate the girl I love from the burden she can't bear." Everett averted his face. Until that moment this excuse had not come into his mind. If Mrs. Vandecar had any affection at all for Ann, the thought that the girl was making herself ill would tempt her to interfere. "Everett, does Ann know why you want to take them away from her?"
"If there isn't anything the matter with my babies " "I want to speak to you about our children, Dear." "They are dead?" Mrs. Vandecar asked dully. "My babies are dead?" At first Vandecar could scarcely trust himself to speak; but, curbing his emotion with an effort, he answered, "No, no; but gone for a little while."
Miss Shellington's mind recalled her girlhood days, in which Katherine had been an intimate part. She could not bear it. She took an impulsive forward step; but Vandecar gripped her. "Stay," came sternly from his lips, "stay! But but God pity her!" The next seconds were laden with biting agony such as neither the governor nor Ann had ever experienced.
"I know very well, Dear, that I am asking you a serious thing; but Brother and I think that it would do her a world of good." Mrs. Vandecar thoughtfully received the shawl Katherine brought her. Then she looked straight at Ann and said: "Everett doesn't approve of your work, does he, Ann?" Miss Shellington colored, and fingered her engagement ring.
Fledra Vandecar clutched at Ann's sleeve. "He's praying, Ann! He's praying!" Miss Shellington bowed her head in assent. "Poor baby, poor little dear!" Mrs. Vandecar's voice was louder than before. "Hush, hush!" breathed Ann. "Come away. He's so very ill!" "Pity pity my simplicity," murmured Floyd again, "and Lord prepare my soul a place!" Mrs.
He had purposely applied to Shellington in his home, fearing that he might meet Governor Vandecar in Horace's office. As long as everyone thought the children his, he could hold to the point that they had to go back with him. He would make no compromise for money with the protectors of his children; for he had rather have their bodies to torment than be the richest man in the state.
Not many minutes later Ann herself ushered Everett into the drawing-room, where she had spent such happy hours with him. But, when they were alone, her distrust of him once more took possession of her, and she looked sharply at him as she asked: "Everett, do you know where Fledra has gone?" "Who? Fledra Vandecar?" His taunt was untimely, and his daring smile changed her distrust to repulsion.
This happened on the morning following the night when Silent Lon Cronk told the dark tale of suffering to his pals. Just how Lon Cronk came to know the inner workings of the Vandecar household he never confided; but, biding his time, waited for the hour to come when the blow would be harder to bear.
He did not remember that Vandecar had come for his girl; he had in mind only the wee, sweet squatter woman so long dead. "Didn't the warden tell ye that I hit him, Mister," he groaned, "and that I smashed the keeper when they telled me about her, and and that the strait-jacket busted my collarbone when I was tryin' to get out to her?"
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