ght I'd better not. The idea came to
me that maybe 'Gene does poach and occasionally take a deer out of
season. Meat is so high it wouldn't be surprising. They have a pretty
hard time scraping along. I don't know as I'd blame him if he did shoot
a deer once in a while.

"Well, after I'd been on beyond and made my estimate on the popple, I
came back that way. And as I passed where he'd been lying, I thought,
just for curiosity, I'd go up and see if I could see what he'd been
looking at so hard. I got up to the big beech where he'd been, and
looked over. And I got the surprise of my life. He couldn't have been
looking at deer, for on the other side the cliff drops down sheer, and
you look right off into air, across the valley. I was so surprised I
stood there, taken aback. The afternoon train went up the valley while I
stood there, staring. It looked so tiny. You're really very high on
those Rocks. I noticed you could see your Cousin Hetty's house from
there, and the mill and the Powers house. That looked like a child's
plaything, so little, under the big pine. And just as I looked at that,
I saw a man come out from the house, get on a horse, and ride away."

"Why, that must have been Frank," said Marise. "He rides that roan mare
of his as much as he drives her."

"Yes, that's what came into my mind when you spoke his name just now in
connection with Nelly. I hadn't thought anything of it, before."

There was a moment's silence as they looked at each other.

"Oh, _Neale_!" said Marise, on a deep note. "How awful! You don't
suppose there is anything in his jealousy. . . . Nelly is as inscrutable in
her way as 'Gene."

"Heavens! how should I know? But my guess is that 'Gene is making a fool
of himself for nothing. Nelly doesn't strike me as being the sort of
woman to . . ."

"But Frank is awfully good-looking and dashing, and lots younger than
'Gene. And Nelly is young too and perfectly stunning to look at. And
she's not one of our native valley girls, you know. It may seem very
dull and cooped-up here, so far from town, and shops. She may envy her
sisters, still living back in West Adams with city life around them."

"Oh, it's possible enough, I suppose," admitted Neale. "But she seems
perfectly contented, and thinks the world of the children."

Marise's face clouded. The phrase had recalled her dark preoccupations
of a moment ago. "Lots of people nowadays would say she seems to be fond
of the children because sh