They were not unduly fastidious,
these neighbors, and they knew that hot blood requires more than a
generation to cool, but everything Ed did outraged them. In trying
to show their sympathy for his wife they succeeded in wounding her
more deeply, and Alaire withdrew into herself. She became almost a
recluse, and fenced herself away not only from the curious, but
also from those who really wished to be her friends. In time
people remarked that Ed Austin's metamorphosis was no harder to
understand than that of his wife.
It was true. She had changed. The alteration reached to the very
bone and marrow of her being. At first the general pity had
wounded her, then it had offended, and finally angered her. That
people should notice her affliction, particularly when she strove
so desperately to hide it, seemed the height of insolence.
The management of Las Palmas was almost her only relief. Having
sprung from a family of ranchers, the work came easy, and she grew
to like it--as well as she could like anything with that ever-
present pain in her breast. The property was so large that it gave
ample excuse for avoiding the few visitors who came, and the range
boss, Benito Gonzales, attended to most of the buying and selling.
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