"The far distant sound of a harp's soft strings - an echo on the air,
The hidden page may be full of sweet things, of things that once were fair.
There's a turned down page in each life, and mine - a story might unfold,
But the end was sad of the dream divine. It better rests untold."

It was time for Harlan to arrive. Charlie Harlan, the man whom she hoped
to cajole into buying Mountaineer House. She strolled out into the
garden as Harlan rode up and tied his horse under one of the trees.

A happy pair passed. A delicate girl mounted upon a little mule and a
sturdy youth walking in the dust, his hand upon the beast's shoulder.
With their serene and joy-illumined faces they somehow suggested the
holy family, symbolical of all that was divine in a sordid world.

The girl smiled and waved to Rosa, but the young man doffed his hat
coldly and hastened by.

"The sweet little Elena," said Rosa to herself, "and her lover-husband.
I wear the silken wedding gown which no lover sees, but she travels the
way in calico with the man she loves. May the Blessed Virgin grant that
she shall have no turned down pages in her life," and forcing her proud
and bitter mouth into a provocative smile, she went forward to welcome
Harlan.



The Hanging of Charlie Price

III