The Project Gutenberg EBook of At Pinney's Ranch, by Edward Bellamy

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Title: At Pinney's Ranch
1898

Author: Edward Bellamy

Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22709]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT PINNEY'S RANCH ***

Produced by David Widger

AT PINNEY'S RANCH

By Edward Bellamy

1898

John Lansing first met Mary Hollister at the house of his friend Pinney,
whose wife was her sister. She had soft gray eyes, a pretty color in her
cheeks, rosy lips, and a charming figure. In the course of the evening
somebody suggested mind-reading as a pastime, and Lansing, who had some
powers, or supposed powers, in that direction, although he laughed
at them himself, experimented in turn with the ladies. He failed with
nearly every subject until it came Mary Hollister's turn. As she placed
her soft palm in his, closed her eyes, and gave herself up to his
influence, he knew that he should succeed with her, and so he did.
She proved a remarkably sympathetic subject, and Lansing was himself
surprised, and the spectators fairly thrilled, by the feats he was able
to perform by her aid. After that evening he met her often, and there
was more equally remarkable mind-reading; and then mind-reading was
dropped for heart-reading, and the old, old story they read in each
other's hearts had more fascination for them than the new science.
Having once discovered that their hearts beat in unison, they took no
more interest in the relation of their minds.

The action proper of this story begins four years after their marriage,
with a very shocking event,--nothing less than the murder of Austin
Flint, who was found dead one morning in the house in which he lived
alone. Lansing had no hand in the deed, but he might almost as well have
had; for, while absolutely guiltless, he was caught in one of those nets
of circumstance which no foresight can avoid, whereby innocent men are
sometimes snared helplessly, and delivered over to a horrid death. There
had been a misunderstanding between him and the dead man, and only
a couple of days before the murder, they had exchanged blows on the
street. When Fli