ed years? He saw the huge form
of the sheriff loom like an evil spirit a moment on the rise of the road
and sink into the night. He turned slowly to his cheerless house
shuddering as he entered the uninviting portals.

_Thirty-seven_

THE MOB

When Emma, Bertie's child, came home after a two years' course of study,
she had passed from girlhood to young womanhood. She was white, and
sandy-haired. She was not beautiful, and she appeared to be fragile; but
she also looked sweet and good, with that peculiar innocence which peers
out upon the world with calm, round eyes and sees no evil, but does
methodically its simple, everyday work. Zora mothered her, Miss Smith
found her plenty to do, and Bles thought her a good girl. But Mrs.
Cresswell found her perfect, and began to scheme to marry her off. For
Mary Cresswell, with the restlessness and unhappiness of an unemployed
woman, was trying to atone for her former blunders.

Her humiliation after the episode at Cresswell Oaks had been complete.
It seemed to her that the original cause of her whole life punishment
lay in her persistent misunderstanding of the black people and their
problem. Zora appeared to her in a new and glorified light--a vigorous,
self-sacrificing woman. She knew that Zora had refused to marry Bles,
and this again seemed fitting. Zora was not meant for marrying; she was
a born leader, wedded to a great cause; she had long outgrown the boy
and girl affection. She was the sort of woman she herself might have
been if she had not married.

Alwyn, on the other hand, needed a wife; he was a great, virile boy,
requiring a simple, affectionate mate. No sooner did she see Emma than
she was sure that this was the ideal wife. She compared herself with
Helen Cresswell. Helen was a contented wife and mother because she was
fitted for the position, and happy in it; while she who had aimed so
high had fallen piteously. From such a fate she would save Zora and
Bles.

Emma's course in nurse-training had been simple and short and there was
no resident physician; but Emma, in her unemotional way, was a born
nurse and did much good among the sick in the neighborhood. Zora had a
small log hospital erected with four white beds, a private room, and an
office which was also Emma's bedroom. The new white physician in town,
just fresh from school in Atlanta, became interested and helped with
advice and suggestions.

Meantime John Taylor's troubles began to increase.