Then both girls were silent for a few moments. And finally Jean tried to slip quietly out of the room.
A voice from the bed called her back. "Don"t go, dear. I am sorry I was cross. I believe I am homesick today. I have been thinking a whole lot of Miss Winthrop and wanting to go back to my own country. Dear me, I am glad Ruth and Jim are so soon to be married and we shall then be sailing for home!"
Jean smoothed Olive"s dark hair back from her lovely Spanish face.
"I am glad Jack is not hearing you say this, Olive child," she whispered. "Think how jealous it would make poor Jack feel to hear that you felt nearer Miss Winthrop than you do to her. I thought you used to love her best."
"I did. I do," Olive replied faintly. "But Jean, haven"t you or Ruth guessed that we are not going to be able to keep Jack at the old ranch always, much as she adores it. Frank Kent is deeply in love with Jack.
And I believe Jack cares for him. Of course I know you will think this strange after the other affair with Captain Madden. But that is just the reason why Jack will be able to realize she is in love with Frank. Her feeling for him is so entirely different."
Jean was glad that her own face was in shadow. This was her opportunity.
But what could she, what should she say?
"Why Olive, I don"t believe for a moment old Jack cares a great deal about Frank," Jean protested, trying to make her manner appear as light as possible under the circ.u.mstances. "Indeed, I am almost sure of it. It must be a fancy on your part, for I am almost sure Jack thinks that Frank cares for you."
"Then she is very foolish," Olive returned.
"But why foolish? It seems to me Frank is always preferring to go off alone with you. And he always has been tremendously fond of you. Once he told me that he thought you quite the prettiest of the four of us."
The other girl laughed. And Jean wondered if it was her imagination or if there was a sound in Olive"s laugh which she did not like.
"Frank has always cared for Jack. It would have been absurd of me ever to have failed to see it. Why, he began caring when we were almost children at the ranch. He has always been a good friend to me, but nothing else. And lately, if you have suspected anything because we have been alone together, it was only because poor Frank wished to talk to me about Jack. He does not believe that she cares for him in the least. He says that once when he began to try to tell her she stopped him immediately. Frank is afraid Jack may still have some feeling about the old affair. I have done my best to make him see things differently. And he has no right not to make Jack listen to him, even if he believes she may refuse him. Deep down in her heart Jack has always cared for Frank.
Don"t you think so yourself, Jean?"
"I--oh, I don"t know anything about it. I am so surprised!" Jean stammered.
"Frank has asked me to talk to Jack, to find out if she would be wounded by his telling her of his love so soon after Captain Madden. But somehow, Jean," and here Olive"s voice faltered, "I don"t believe I know how to do it very well. Why, if I began poor Jack might think that I had believed Frank in love with me and was telling her this to prove to her I had no feeling for him. It would be like old Jack to get some such absurd fancy as that into her head. And then, of course, we both know that Jack would rather die than give poor Frank the slightest chance."
"But don"t you care for Frank?" It was on the tip of Jean Bruce"s tongue to ask Olive this question. Yet just in time she stopped it.
Never so long as she or any one else lived could this question be put to Olive Van Mater. By her own words and manner had she not chosen forever to silence it. And actually Jean herself did not know what to think. It was so easy in this world to receive a false impression.
"Would you like me to tell Jack then, Olive dear?" Jean queried, for her own sake keeping her eyes away from her friend"s. "Of course I should not dare say anything about Frank"s feelings. But I could kind of intimate what you have just told me."
Olive drew the cover a little closer about her. "You are awfully good, Jean. Yes, that will be best. Now, please, you won"t mind if I ask you to leave me. And will you make my excuses to Lady Kent at dinner? My head really aches too severely for me to come down."
CHAPTER XXIII
THE WEDDING DAY
IN England the roses bloom all the summer through. And nowhere are they more lovely and plentiful than in the county of Surrey.
So the little English church on the Kent estate was filled one August morning with white, pink, red and yellow roses.
Ruth wore a simple white tulle dress and hat. For she did not wish a wedding veil, and Jim announced that he did not intend having his Ruth"s face concealed at the time he most desired to see it.
Olive, Jean and Frieda were bridesmaids, and Jack maid of honor. Frank Kent was best man, Richard Grant, Giovanni Colonna and another friend of Frank"s acted as ushers. Donald Harmon had returned to London, explaining that he felt compelled to join his mother and sister there.
Since the bride would have no unnecessary adornments, the Ranch girls"
toilets were of the same character--French organdies trimmed in Irish point lace, and big picture hats. The three bridesmaids wore white, and Jack, pale yellow.
Of course Ruth carried a big loose bunch of white roses and the four girls yellow ones. Indeed, all the wedding arrangements were perfect in their simplicity. There was only one possible flaw in the success of the program and that was the behavior of the bridegroom.
For Jim began by insisting in the early days of the preparations that he was more than likely to give a cowboy yell of triumph at the conclusion of the ceremony, and the day of the wedding rehearsal became so nervous and unreasonable that Frieda decided he would never be able to go through with the real thing.
Jim did look white as a ghost as he came out into the chancel, supported by Frank, to wait for Ruth. The English vested choir was chanting, "Oh, Perfect Love;" the atmosphere of the church was heavy with the odor of flowers; the light through the old stained gla.s.s windows shone dimly golden.
There was a moment when Jim Colter had a strange and incongruous sensation. What a queer setting this for _his_ wedding! Surely he would have felt more at home under a group of tall pines somewhere out in his western plains or under the roof of one of their homely neighborhood churches.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RUTH STARTED UP THE AISLE ON LORD KENT"S ARM.]
Nevertheless, when Ruth started up the aisle toward him on Lord Kent"s arm and Jim caught the expression of her face, he did not know or care about anything else in the world. Frieda always insisted that he never answered the responses, since not a single sound was she able to hear fall from his lips. There were other witnesses though, Jack and Frank for instance, who agreed that the bridegroom did mutter "I will" at the critical moment after being prompted by the bride. So that Frieda was finally persuaded to believe that the ceremony was fairly legal.
Back at the castle Ruth had entreated that they need have only the family to breakfast with them. Mr. and Mrs. Colter were leaving in little more than an hour for London to take the train to Harwich and cross on the night boat for Holland, where they meant to spend their week of honeymoon. And Ruth had also said that she wanted a few quiet moments alone with each one of the girls.
The marriage was probably as satisfactory a one as had ever taken place, yet unquestionably the bride and the four Ranch girls were uncommonly teary all during the wedding feast. Indeed, Frieda actually sniffled when she drew the thimble from the cake proclaiming that she would be the old maid of the group, and only recovered when Olive insisted that some mistake had been made and exchanged the ring for the thimble.
But Jim had entirely regained his spirits, and he and Frank devoted their best energies toward making the breakfast party as cheerful as possible. Nevertheless, both Jean and Olive guessed that Frank Kent was not so gay as he pretended to be. For his brown eyes had a way of looking grave, even while he was actually laughing. And at least one of the two girls believed that he had a definite purpose in his mind, which must be accomplished before the day was past.
By and by Ruth slipped away to her room, asking that Jack be alone with her for the first five minutes, and then that each one of the other girls follow in turn, according to age.
Because Jim liked her best in the colors that he had been used to seeing her wear in the old times at the ranch, Ruth"s traveling costume was as Puritanical a gray as in her most nun-like New England days. But the hat was a coquettish Parisian creation with a pink rose under the brim.
Besides, Ruth"s expression had so changed in the last weeks that there was no chance of her ever again suggesting an old maid.
She had only taken off her wedding gown, however, when Jack, putting her arms about her, stooped to kiss her.
"Ruth, dearest," Jack announced, holding the older woman at a little distance from her, "I want to tell you again that nothing that has ever happened to me in my whole life had made me so happy as your marriage to Jim. I know I have always given both of you about twice as much trouble as the other three of us. Yet I kind of feel it has been made up to you by having known each other through your coming to teach us at the Lodge.
But I am grown-up now, I think. And this last experience has taught me more than any of you can guess. If you and Jim can make up your minds to live on at the old ranch I will try my best never to be a nuisance again, not if I live to be a hundred years old!"
"Do you expect to live always at Rainbow Lodge, Jack?" Ruth asked, smiling, but watching Jack"s face pretty closely.
Jack nodded. "I don"t think I shall dare trust myself again."
But Ruth shook her gently. "That is what I wanted to speak to you about alone, dear. It was a foolish fancy of mine, wishing to say farewell to each one of you this way. You must remember how much happiness I have kept from Jim and myself because of a mistaken idea. Don"t repeat it, my dear. If ever you feel you can care a great deal for any one and that your love is returned, don"t get any silly fancies in your head. Don"t let your one mistake--"
"But, Ruth," Jack interrupted, more seriously than the older woman had expected, "suppose your foolish fancy happened to be connected with some one else? Suppose you could only be happy at another"s expense! You see, you never had a rival in Jim"s affections."
"And I never would have paid any attention to her if I had," Ruth replied so emphatically that her companion laughed. "If a man loves a woman and she loves him, that is the end of it. The third person I am afraid is the one that must suffer. For can"t you see that she must suffer any way if her affection is not returned!"
There was no thought in Ruth"s mind at the present moment that Jack"s words had any special bearing on her own case. For although Ruth and Jim had suspected Frank"s feeling for Jack, their imaginations had gone no further. Indeed, they were both afraid that the girl had no more than a pa.s.sing affection for her former friend.
Ruth now walked over toward her mirror to fasten a diamond brooch in her dress, which had been the Ranch girls" engagement present.
"I believe our time alone is almost up, and Olive will be appearing in another moment. But Jim and I have a gift for each one of you which we want you to keep always if you can in remembrance of our wedding day."