on
the veranda in the chill night air watching the others disappear
across the lawn. Mr. and Mrs. Worthington and Lucilla had all shaken
hands with her in saying good night. Fanny followed suit limply and
grudgingly. Hosmer buttoned his coat impatiently and only lifted his
hat to Therese as he helped his wife down the stairs.

Poor Fanny! she had already taken exception at that hand pressure
which was to come and for which she watched, and now her whole small
being was in a jealous turmoil--because there had been none.

XII

Tidings That Sting.

Therese felt that the room was growing oppressive. She had been
sitting all morning alone before the fire, passing in review a great
heap of household linen that lay piled beside her on the floor,
alternating this occupation with occasional careful and tender offices
bestowed upon a wee lamb that had been brought to her some hours
before, and that now lay wounded and half lifeless upon a pile of
coffee sacks before the blaze.

A fire was hardly needed, except to dispel the dampness that had even
made its insistent way indoors, covering walls and furniture with a
clammy film. Outside, the moisture was dripping from the glistening
magnolia leaves and from the pointed polished leaves of the live-oaks,
and the sun that had come out with intense suddenness was drawing it
steaming from the shingled roof-tops.

When Therese, finally aware of the closeness of the room, opened the
door and went out on the veranda, she saw a man, a stranger, riding
towards the house and she stood to await his approach. He belonged to
what is rather indiscriminately known in that section of the State as
the "piney-woods" genus. A rawboned fellow, lank and long of leg; as
ungroomed with his scraggy yellow hair and beard as the scrubby little
Texas pony which he rode. His big soft felt hat had done unreasonable
service as a head-piece; and the "store clothes" that hung upon his
lean person could never in their remotest freshness have masqueraded
under the character of "all wool." He was in transit, as the bulging
saddle-bags that hung across his horse indicated, as well as the rough
brown blanket strapped behind him to the animal's back. He rode up
close to the rail of the veranda near which Therese stood, and nodded
to her without offering to raise or touch his hat. She was prepared
for the drawl with which he addressed her, and even guessed at what
his first words would be.

"You're Mrs.