Part 20 (1/2)

”You were able to remember that?”

”Certainly! Then there were the teams. It would have been a pity to let them be killed.”

Beatrice thought he might have offered a better explanation. He had implied that anxiety about the boiler had influenced him more than regard for his horses. She felt that she must give him an opportunity for defending himself.

”I wonder which consideration counted most?”

He looked at her with amus.e.m.e.nt; and she flushed as she suddenly recalled that he was sometimes very shrewd.

”Well,” he said, ”the main thing was to get hold of the reins--and I don't know that it matters now.”

”I suppose not,” Beatrice agreed, vexed that he did not seem anxious to make the best impression. ”After all, breaking land on a large scale must be expensive, and I understand that your plans are ambitious.”

Harding glanced across the prairie: it ran back to the blue smear of trees on the horizon, covered with thin snow, and struck a note of utter desolation.

”Yes,” he said with a gleam in his eyes. ”All this looks lifeless and useless now, but I can see it belted with wheat and oats and flax in the fall. There will be a difference when the binders move through the grain in rows.”

”In rows!”

”We'll want a number, if all goes well. Devine's land follows my boundary, and we must drive our plows in one straight line. We begin at the rise yonder and run east to the creek.”

The boldness of the undertaking appealed to the girl as she glanced across the wide stretch of snow.

”It's a big thing,” she said.

”A beginning. Two men can't do much, but more are coming. In a year or two the wheat will run as far as you can see, and there'll be homesteads all along the skyline.”

They walked on in silence for a moment; then he gave her an amused glance.

”I guess Colonel Mowbray doesn't like what I'm doing?”

”He doesn't go so far. It's to what you are persuading our friends to do that he objects.”

”That's a pity. They'll have to follow--not because I lead, but because necessity drives.”

”You're taking it for granted that it does drive; and you must see my father's point of view.”

”That I'm encouraging your people to rebel? That's not my wish, but he can't hold them much longer--the drift of things is against him.”

Beatrice's eyes sparkled. He thought she looked very charming with her proud air and the color in her face; but he must keep his head. He was readjusting his opinions about sudden, mutual love, and he saw that precipitation might cost him too much. If he could not have the girl on his own terms, he must take her on hers.

”Colonel Mowbray founded the settlement,” Beatrice said, ”and it has prospered. Can't you understand his feelings when he sees his control threatened?”

”The time when one man could hold full command has gone. He can be a moral influence and keep the right spirit in his people, but he must leave them freedom of action.”

”That is just the trouble! It's the modern spirit which you are bringing into the settlement that disturbs us. We managed to get along very well before we ever heard of Mr. Harding and his steam-plow and his wheat-binders and his creameries.”

She could not keep the slight scorn out of her voice; indeed, she did not wish to do so. But he took it good-naturedly.