Part 40 (1/2)
”That's done with,” Grant said firmly; and soon afterward he and George returned to the other room.
After a while he went out with Edgar to look at a horse, and George turned to Flora.
”Your father has taken a big weight off my mind, and I'm afraid I hardly thanked him,” he said.
”Then it was a relief?” she asked, and it failed to strike him as curious that she seemed to know what he was alluding to.
”Yes,” he declared; ”I feel ever so much more confident now that I can get that seed. The fact that it was offered somehow encouraged me.”
”You never expected anything of the kind? I've sometimes thought you're apt to stand too much alone. You don't attach enough importance to your friends.”
”Perhaps not,” admitted George. ”I've been very wrong in this instance; but I suppose one naturally prefers to hide one's difficulties.”
”I don't think the feeling's universal. But you would, no doubt, be more inclined to help other people out of their troubles.”
George looked a little embarra.s.sed, and she changed the subject with a laugh.
”Come and see us when you can find the time. On the last occasion, you sent your partner over.”
”I'd made an appointment with an implement man when I got your father's note. Anyway, I should have fancied that Edgar would have made a pretty good subst.i.tute.”
”Mr. West is a favorite of ours; he's amusing and excellent company, as far as he goes.”
Her tone conveyed a hint that Edgar had his limitations and he was not an altogether satisfactory exchange for his partner; but George laughed.
”He now and then goes farther than I would care to venture.”
Flora looked at him with faint amus.e.m.e.nt.
”Yes,” she said. ”That's one of the differences between you; you're not a.s.sertive. It has struck me that you don't always realize your value.”
”Would you like one to insist on it?”
”Oh,” she said, ”there's a happy medium; but I'm getting rather personal, and I hear the others coming.”
She drove away a little later, and when Flett had gone to bed George and Edgar sat talking a while beside the stove.
”Grant's a staunch friend, and I'm more impressed with Flora every time I see her,” said the lad. ”She's pleasant to talk to, she can harness and handle a team with any one; but for all that, you recognize a trace of what I can only call the grand manner in her. Though I understand that she has been to the old country, it's rather hard to see how she got it.”
George signified agreement. Miss Grant was undoubtedly characterized by a certain grace and now and then by an elusive hint of stateliness.
It was a thing quite apart from self-a.s.sertion; a gracious quality, which he had hitherto noticed only in the bearing of a few elderly English ladies of station.
”I suppose you thanked her for that seed?” Edgar resumed.
”I said I was grateful to her father.”
”I've no doubt you took the trouble to mark the distinction. It might have been more considerate if you had divided your grat.i.tude.”
”What do you mean?”