I don't care if he is Mona's brother." "Half brother," corrected Thurston, as he swung up into the saddle.

He had a poor opinion of Jack and resented even that slight relation to Mona.
The road was soggy with the rain which fell steadily; down in the bottom, the low places in the road were already under water, and the river, widening almost perceptibly in its headlong rush down the narrow valley, crept inch by inch up its low banks.

When they galloped into the yard which sloped from the house gently down to the river fifty yards away, Mona's face appeared for a moment in the window.

Evidently she had been watching for some one, and Thurston's heart flopped in his chest as he wondered, fleetingly, if it could be himself.

When she opened the door her eyes greeted him with a certain wistful expression that he had never seen in them before.