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He closed it slowly, softly, reverently, and then turned a smiling face of compassionate understanding toward Xoa and the colonel. There was a hush in the Squire's house. The three who were in the sitting room discussed affairs, subduing their tones almost to whispers. When somebody tramped on to the porch and pounded on the door, the interruption was startling.
I'm expecting that he'll now invent a lie about himself or Britt or somebody else to make that girl either sorry enough or mad enough to carry out what gossip is predicting." Xoa had seated herself at the small table and was vigorously rattling the dice in one of the boxes by way of a hint to the laggard menfolks.
"There'll be no use in asking him questions till he's in his right mind. He'll probably get back his wits when he gets back his clothes." "Squire Hexter, what's happening in this town to-night. What " "All in good time, sonny! Let's get home where Xoa is." There were lights in the Squire's house. In spite of the fog, Vaniman perceived that there was a gray hint of dawn in the heavens.
He marched to Vaniman, took that perturbed young man by the arm, and said that Xoa would be waiting supper. As Squire Hexter and Vaniman walked on together the notary deferred comment on the recent happenings, as if he hoped that the cashier would open up on the topic. But Frank was grimly silent. Therefore the Squire broke the ice. "What kind of a partner does Tasp Britt make in a polka, son?
Joe invented an anti-stagger shoe a star-shaped shoe to be let out at saloons and city clubs like they lend umbrellas for a fee and then the reformers went and passed that prohibition law. Always a little behind with a grand notion that's the trouble with Joe!" "Amos, you're making up that yarn about a shoe!" declared Xoa.
Vona had come to his side, she understood the nature of his anxiety. "I am just starting for my house, Squire Hexter. I'm going to hurry back with Frank's supper, so that he won't be bothered." "Bless your soul, sis, even Xoa will be perfectly satisfied with that arrangement when I explain," said the Squire, gallantly. "I'm tempted to stay, myself, if Hebe is going to serve."
But, having definitely decided to leave the town, he was in a mood to put aside considerations of caution in regard to their mutual affairs, for one evening, at any rate. He was moved also by the reflection that her father was at home and the Squire and Xoa had dropped broad hints as to that gentleman's methods of operation with his womenkind.
Colonel Wincott and Xoa were on the porch, lighted by the great, red torch whose radiance was flung afar by the reflector aid of the fog. "It's Britt's house and Britt is in it," he told them. "Colonel, your man Friday had over many times one text that fits this thing. 'Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothing not be burned?" He went to Xoa and patted her arm.
"Of course, I don't need to remind you, Xoa, speaking of gossip, that the folks will have it that Tasp Britt has put on that war paint so as to go on the trail of a Number Two. And Joe says that, in picking Vona, Britt has picked right. Joe's a genius in inventing.
Now, Xoa," urged the Squire, "go to Vona before some lunatic tells her something to scare her to death!" The good woman hastened away, her smile reassuring the lover. For some time the Squire regarded Vaniman with an expression into which some of the old notary's whimsical humor began to creep. "So it struck you, did it, that you had dropped back into town on a lively night?
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