as a hater of Mormons. Out of the mother longing that swelled her breast
she divined the child hunger in Lassiter.

He returned the next day, and the next; and upon the following he came
both at morning and at night. Upon the evening of this fourth day Jane
seemed to feel the breaking of a brooding struggle in Lassiter. During
all these visits he had scarcely a word to say, though he watched her
and played absent-mindedly with Fay. Jane had contented herself with
silence. Soon little Fay substituted for the expression of regard, "I
like oo," a warmer and more generous one, "I love oo."

Thereafter Lassiter came oftener to see Jane and her little protegee.
Daily he grew more gentle and kind, and gradually developed a quaintly
merry mood. In the morning he lifted Fay upon his horse and let her
ride as he walked beside her to the edge of the sage. In the evening he
played with the child at an infinite variety of games she invented,
and then, oftener than not, he accepted Jane's invitation to supper. No
other visitor came to Withersteen House during those days. So that in
spite of watchfulness he never forgot, Lassiter began to show he felt at
home there. After the meal they walked into the grove of cottonwoods or
up by the lakes, and little Fay held Lassiter's hand as much as she held
Jane's. Thus a strange relationship was established, and Jane liked it.
At twilight they always returned to the house, where Fay kissed them and
went in to her mother. Lassiter and Jane were left alone.

Then, if there were anything that a good woman could do to win a man
and still preserve her self-respect, it was something which escaped the
natural subtlety of a woman determined to allure. Jane's vanity, that
after all was not great, was soon satisfied with Lassiter's silent
admiration. And her honest desire to lead him from his dark,
blood-stained path would never have blinded her to what she owed
herself. But the driving passion of her religion, and its call to save
Mormons' lives, one life in particular, bore Jane Withersteen close to
an infringement of her womanhood. In the beginning she had reasoned that
her appeal to Lassiter must be through the senses. With whatever means
she possessed in the way of adornment she enhanced her beauty. And she
stooped to artifices that she knew were unworthy of her, but which
she deliberately chose to employ. She made of herself a girl in every
variable mood wherein a girl might be desirable. In thos