at the end will be?

It was at such a moment in her life at which Prudence had arrived. Her
mind was set upon an object which absorbed all her faculties, all her
brain, all her feelings. Had she been able to pause, even for one
moment, reason must have asserted itself and she would have understood
the folly of what she was doing. But that moment was denied her. All
the latent passions of a strong nature had been let loose and she was
swept on by their irresistible tide. She believed that she was the
appointed avenger of the man she had once loved, and that this duty
unfulfilled would be a crime, the stain of which nothing could wipe
out. Iredale must be confronted, challenged, and----

And so she came to Lonely Ranch on her self-imposed errand of
justice.

The man she sought was not in the house when she came. The valley
seemed to be devoid of life as she rode up. But the solitude was
almost instantly broken by the appearance of Chintz from the region of
the barn. She dispatched him in search of his master and passed into
the bachelor sitting-room to await his coming.

She was restless and her nerves were strung to a great tension. Her
eyes still shone with that peculiar light which ever seemed to look
out of her brother's. There was no yielding in the set of her mouth.
Her resolve disfigured the sweetness which usually characterized her
beautiful features.

She stood before the window, looking out upon the shadow-bathed
valley. She saw before her the dark wall of foliage which rose to the
heights of the Front Hill. Not a living soul was about, only was there
a rising wind which disturbed the unbroken forest of pines. She
turned abruptly from the view as though she could not bear the
solitude which was thus made so apparent. She crossed over to where
the bookcase stood against the wall, and glanced in through the glazed
doors. But she comprehended nothing of what she saw. She was thinking,
thinking, and her mind was in a tumult of hysterical fancies. And she
was listening too; listening for a sound--any sound other than that
which the wind made. Mechanically she came over to the table and leant
against it in an attitude of abstraction. She shivered; she stood up
to steady herself and she shivered again. And all the time the
frenzied eyes gleamed in their beautiful oval setting, the lips were
drawn inwards, and there remained only a sharply-defined line to mark
the sweet mouth. Presently her lips parted and she moi