grandmother had written me how Antonia
went away to marry Larry Donovan at some
place where he was working; that he had
deserted her, and that there was now a baby.
This was all I knew.

"He never married her," Frances said. "I
haven't seen her since she came back. She
lives at home, on the farm, and almost never
comes to town. She brought the baby in to
show it to mama once. I'm afraid she's set-
tled down to be Ambrosch's drudge for good."

I tried to shut Antonia out of my mind. I
was bitterly disappointed in her. I could not
forgive her for becoming an object of pity,
while Lena Lingard, for whom people had
always foretold trouble, was now the leading
dressmaker of Lincoln, much respected in
Black Hawk. Lena gave her heart away
when she felt like it, but she kept her head for
her business and had got on in the world.

Just then it was the fashion to speak in-
dulgently of Lena and severely of Tiny Soder-
ball, who had quietly gone West to try her
fortune the year before. A Black Hawk boy,
just back from Seattle, brought the news that
Tiny had not gone to the coast on a venture,
as she had allowed people to think, but with

[[336]]

p335 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p336w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p337

v?