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He remembered Teola's birth, with a groan of pain: remembered how he had taken the dark-haired babe, so tiny and helpless, into his study alone, and had uttered the sincerest prayer of a father's life, that the blessings of Heaven would cover his new-found treasure and would guide the little footsteps during the whole bright future her future must be bright, with his love to shield her.
The muscles relaxed in the squatter's face. Her legs refused to bear the slender body, and Tessibel dropped again at Teola's side. The kiss she had cherished burned hot upon her lips. Her student lived. The minister's daughter cried for the other one, for him who had called her Miss Skinner, and who afterward helped her smuggle Frederick into the opera-house.
The girl scented something unusual in the angry tones of her father's voice. She followed Frederick alone into the library which looked out upon Tessibel's hut. "What's the matter?" Frederick shrugged his shoulders impatiently. "Nothing much." The brother and sister had grown into a confidential friendship during the past two years. Teola's face dropped as she heard Frederick's halting answer.
Teola's eyes rested upon the street below for several minutes, then dragged her gaze upward and beyond beyond to the long road that led to the yard of the dead which stretched over the hillside, rearing its monuments among the leafless trees, like sentinels over sleeping soldiers.
Tess remembered her oath remembered her love for the boy, and Teola's cowardice. Her despair gathered as her false position was forced upon her. She stooped, and grasped the babe in her hands with a passion that tore the meager clothing from its body. She crushed the infant to her as if indeed Teola's words were true.
Then she allowed her fingers to come in contact with Teola's shoulder, pressing into the girl's mind some message. "Ye be a-goin' to see the sick woman to-day, ain't ye?" Tess could scarcely utter the words. Would Teola understand what she wanted to impress upon her? Her fingers sought the shoulder again. "Yes," came the low answer. "Might I ask ye to take her a bit of fish, what I promised her?
Suddenly tears welled into the dark eyes; Teola Graves hid her face from the new world of painful joy and forgot in sleep. Teola's next hour with her lover was the most embarrassing one of her life. Dan took her hands in silence, and the seriousness of his face bespoke his heart pain.
She had grown to love the hapless thing, and knew that he suffered as all human beings suffer when they go slowly away to the mystery of mysteries. Teola's next words brought her about sharply. "Tessibel, do you hate me?" "Nope." "Oh, what a coward I am! Frederick has forbidden me to come here." "That air 'cause he air a good bloke," snorted Tess. "But if he knowed "
She answered no more of Teola's questions, but for a long time remained moodily looking, with narrowed eyes and burning heart, at the minister's daughter. Two days later, on Friday evening, Teola slipped quietly from her home, and the Skinner hut opened to her timid knock. Tess had no more fear when visitors came. Ben Letts had gone with Myra, and Ezra Longman was dead.
Suddenly he rose from his chair, set his cap far back on his head, and disappeared into the underbrush that lay thick back of the hut. The cause of the hatred between Ezra Longman and Ben Letts was quietly eating her dinner. Teola's child lay smacking the sugar from the wet rag.
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