sily homeward, somewhat apprehensive of the consequences of his
abrupt wooing, which was evidently open to an unfavorable construction.
When, an hour later, Rena sent one of the Johnson children for some of
her things, with a message explaining that the teacher had been invited
to spend a few days at Elder Johnson's, Wain felt a pronounced measure
of relief. For an hour he had even thought it might be better to
relinquish his pursuit. With a fatuousness born of vanity, however, no
sooner had she sent her excuse than he began to look upon her visit to
Johnson's as a mere exhibition of coyness, which, together with her
conduct in the woods, was merely intended to lure him on.

Right upon the heels of the perturbation caused by Wain's conduct, Rena
discovered that Tryon lived in the neighborhood; that not only might
she meet him any day upon the highway, but that he had actually driven
by the schoolhouse. That he knew or would know of her proximity there
could be no possible doubt, since she had freely told his mother her
name and her home. A hot wave of shame swept over her at the thought
that George Tryon might imagine she were following him, throwing
herself in his way, and at the thought of the construction which he
might place upon her actions. Caught thus between two emotional fires,
at the very time when her school duties, owing to the approaching
exhibition, demanded all her energies, Rena was subjected to a physical
and mental strain that only youth and health could have resisted, and
then only for a short time.

XXIX

PLATO EARNS HALF A DOLLAR

Tryon's first feeling, when his mother at the dinner-table gave an
account of her visit to the schoolhouse in the woods, was one of
extreme annoyance. Why, of all created beings, should this particular
woman be chosen to teach the colored school at Sandy Run? Had she
learned that he lived in the neighborhood, and had she sought the place
hoping that he might consent to renew, on different terms, relations
which could never be resumed upon their former footing? Six weeks
before, he would not have believed her capable of following him; but
his last visit to Patesville had revealed her character in such a light
that it was difficult to predict what she might do. It was, however,
no affair of his. He was done with her; he had dismissed her from his
own life, where she had never properly belonged, and he had filled her
place, or would soon fill it, with another