Then, ignoring Dade,
who stood near him, plainly puzzled over this enigma, he walked over to
the edge of the wood where Taggart's rifle lay, picked it up and made
his way to the ranchhouse.
CHAPTER XVII
MORE PROGRESS
A strange thing was happening to Calumet. His character was in the
process of remaking. Slowly and surely Betty's good influence was
making itself felt. This in spite of his knowledge of her secret
meeting with Neal Taggart. To be sure, so far as his actions were
concerned, he was the Calumet of old, a man of violent temper and
vicious impulses, but there were growing governors that were
continually slowing his passions, strange, new thoughts that were
thrusting themselves insistently before him. He was strangely
uncertain of his attitude toward Betty, disturbed over his feelings
toward her. Despite his knowledge of her secret meeting with Taggart,
with a full consciousness of all the rage against her which that
knowledge aroused in him, he liked her. At the same time, he despised
her. She was not honest. He had no respect for any woman who would
sneak as she had sneaked. She was two-faced; she was trying to cheat
him out of his heritage. She had deceived his father, she was trying
to deceive him. She was unworthy of any admiration whatever, but
whenever he looked at her, whenever she was near him, he was conscious
of a longing that he could not fight down.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196