. She went
back to the house, but to sew was impossible now. She decided to go home,
to walk. The long stretches of country road would give time and isolation
in which to think. She announced her determination briefly as she passed
through the kitchen, oblivious of Aunt Susan's questioning eyes. Snatching
up the large sunbonnet which was supposed to protect her from the browning
effects of Kansas winds and sun, she told the older woman, who made no
effort to disguise her astonishment at the sudden change, to tell John to
come for her on the morrow, and set off toward the north.

Elizabeth knew that her father's temper made her homegoing an unsafe
procedure, but the tumult within her demanded that she get away from Susan
Hornby and think her own thoughts unobserved.

But though the walk gave her time to think, Elizabeth was no nearer a
decision when she sighted the Farnshaw cottonwoods than she had been when
she started out. The sun burned her shoulders where the calico dress was
thin, and she wiped her perspiring face as she stopped determinedly to
come to some conclusion before she should encounter her mother.

"I suppose I ought to give up to him," she said, watching a furry-legged
bumblebee as it moved about over the face of a yellow rosin weed flower by
the roadside. "I wouldn't care if it weren't for his mother. I'd like to
get some of these country ways worked out of me before I have to see too
much of her. She'll never feel the same toward me if she has to tell me
what to do and what not to do. If only he didn't want me so badly. If only
I could have one year away."

The new house pleaded for John Hunter, the content of a home, life with
the young man himself. Elizabeth had reasoned away her distrust of the
means by which her consent had been gained, but her heart clung to the
desire to appear well before Mrs. Hunter. Something warned her that she
must enter that house on an equal footing with the older woman.

"Well, he wants me, and I ought to be glad he is in a hurry. I'll do it. I
ought to have insisted last night if I meant to hold out, and not have let
him misunderstand me. If it weren't for his mother, I wouldn't care."

Having decided to accept the terms offered her, Elizabeth sat down in the
shade of a clump of weeds and pictured, as she rested, the home which was
to be hers. Compared to those of the farmers' wives about them, it was to
be sumptuous. She thought of its size, its arrangement, and the