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A Sappho of Green Springs by Bret Harte
page 123 of 200 (61%)
"An earthquake," said the man, roughly, "and if it had lasted ten
seconds longer it would have shook the whole shanty down and left you
under it. Yer kin tell that to them, if they don't know it, but from the
way they made tracks to the fields, I reckon they did. They're coming
now."

Without another word he turned away half surlily, half defiantly,
passing scarce fifty yards away Mrs. Randolph and her daughter, who were
hastening towards their guest.

"Oh, here you are!" said Mrs. Randolph, with the nearest approach to
effusion that Rose had yet seen in her manner. "We were wondering where
you had run to, and were getting quite concerned. Emile was looking for
you everywhere."

The recollection of his blank and abject face, his vague outcry and
blind fright, came back to Rose with a shock that sent a flash of
sympathetic shame to her face. The ingenious Adele noticed it, and
dutifully pinched her mother's arm.

"Emile?" echoed Rose faintly--"looking for ME?"

Mother and daughter exchanged glances.

"Yes," said Mrs. Randolph, cheerfully, "he says he started to run with
you, but you got ahead and slipped out of the garden door--or something
of the kind," she added, with the air of making light of Rose's girlish
fears. "You know one scarcely knows what one does at such times, and
it must have been frightfully strange to YOU--and he's been quite
distracted, lest you should have wandered away. Adele, run and tell him
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