Octavia slid the gray glove into the bosom of her summery morning gown.
It was hers. Men who put themselves within a strong barbed-wire fence, and remember Hammersmith b.a.l.l.s only by the talk of miners about sluice-boxes, should not be allowed to possess such articles.
After all, what a paradise this prairie country was! How it blossomed like the rose when you found things that were thought to be lost! How delicious was that morning breeze coming in the windows, fresh and sweet with the breath of the yellow ratama blooms! Might one not stand, for a minute, with shining, far-gazing eyes, and dream that mistakes might be corrected?
Why was Mrs. Maclntyre poking about so absurdly with a broom?
"I"ve found it," said Mrs. MacIntyre, banging the door. "Here it is."
"Did you lose something? asked Octavia, with sweetly polite non-interest.
"The little devil!" said Mrs. Maclntyre, driven to violence. "Ye"ve no forgotten him alretty?"
Between them they slew the centipede. Thus was he rewarded for his agency toward the recovery of things lost at the Hammersmiths" ball.
It seems that Teddy, in due course, remembered the glove, and when he returned to the house at sunset made a secret but exhaustive search for it. Not until evening, upon the moonlit eastern gallery, did he find it. It was upon the hand that he had thought lost to him forever, and so he was moved to repeat certain nonsense that he had been commanded never, never to utter again. Teddy"s fences were down.
This time there was no ambition to stand in the way, and the wooing was as natural and successful as should be between ardent shepherd and gentle shepherdess.
The prairies changed to a garden. The Rancho de las Sombras became the Ranch of Light.
A few days later Octavia received a letter from Mr. Bannister, in reply to one she had written to him asking some questions about her business. A portion of the letter ran as follows:
"I am at a loss to account for your references to the sheep ranch.
Two months after your departure to take up your residence upon it, it was discovered that Colonel Beaupree"s t.i.tle was worthless. A deed came to light showing that he disposed of the property before his death. The matter was reported to your manager, Mr. Westlake, who at once repurchased the property. It is entirely beyond my powers of conjecture to imagine how you have remained in ignorance of this fact. I beg that you that will at once confer with that gentleman, who will, at least, corroborate my statement."
Octavia sought Teddy, with battle in her eye.
"What are you working on this ranch for?" she asked once more.
"One hundred--" he began to repeat, but saw in her face that she knew. She held Mr. Bannister"s letter in her hand. He knew that the game was up.
"It"s my ranch," said Teddy, like a schoolboy detected in evil. "It"s a mighty poor manager that isn"t able to absorb the boss"s business if you give him time."
"Why were you working down here?" pursued Octavia still struggling after the key to the riddle of Teddy.
"To tell the truth, "Tave," said Teddy, with quiet candour, "it wasn"t for the salary. That about kept me in cigars and sunburn lotions. I was sent south by my doctor. "Twas that right lung that was going to the bad on account of over-exercise and strain at polo and gymnastics.
I needed climate and ozone and rest and things of that sort."
In an instant Octavia was close against the vicinity of the affected organ. Mr. Bannister"s letter fluttered to the floor.
"It"s--it"s well now, isn"t it, Teddy?"
"Sound as a mesquite chunk. I deceived you in one thing. I paid fifty thousand for your ranch as soon as I found you had no t.i.tle. I had just about that much income acc.u.mulated at my banker"s while I"ve been herding sheep down here, so it was almost like picking the thing up on a bargain-counter for a penny. There"s another little surplus of unearned increment piling up there, "Tave. I"ve been thinking of a wedding trip in a yacht with white ribbons tied to the mast, through the Mediterranean, and then up among the Hebrides and down Norway to the Zuyder Zee."
"And I was thinking," said Octavia, softly, "of a wedding gallop with my manager among the flocks of sheep and back to a wedding breakfast with Mrs. MacIntyre on the gallery, with, maybe, a sprig of orange blossom fastened to the red jar above the table."
Teddy laughed, and began to chant:
"Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep, And doesn"t know where to find "em.
Let "em alone, and they"ll come home, And--"
Octavia drew his head down, and whispered in his ear, But that is one of the tales they brought behind them.