Part 19 (1/2)
”Two o'clock! Why, that was when I reached Slippy----” With heightened color she tightened her rein and touched Bubbles with her heels. ”I'll race you to the farmhouse,” she called over her shoulder, a curious breathlessness in her voice. She kept the lead till they reached the gate of the farm, then Benson caught her horse by the bridle.
”The back of your head is attractive but I like your face better. Don't you want to hear the romantic story of Mrs. Simms before we get there?
She's a Heart and Ringer.”
”A--a what?”
It was no longer necessary to hold the bridle of the girl's horse. She forced him to a walk.
”Heart and Ringer. That is what they call the women who marry men who advertise in the matrimonial sheet, Heart and Ring.”
”Really, Tommy! Did Mrs. Simms do that?”
”She did, and she got just what she paid for. Simms is a bounder but he's thrifty as the d.i.c.kens and an A 1 workman. That's what caught Old Nick in the beginning. He'd have employed the devil himself had he those characteristics. But the man is ugly and insolent. How Steve puts up with him beats me. It is because of Mrs. Simms, I suppose. She is a fine woman and a corker in the dairy. She lived in Montana. She was the daughter of a miner who had made his pile and gone to farming. Montana got on her nerves, so when she saw Simms' 'ad' in Heart and Ring she corresponded with him and married him. I'll bet a hat Montana has looked like heaven to her ever since. That was one of their children who met Steve. I'd give my Kipling de luxe to know why.”
He drew rein before the white farmhouse which hugged the ground like a mammoth brooding hen. In the field beyond was a spatter effect of snowy dairies and cow-barns. Black and white Holsteins, creamy Jerseys, Guernseys and a few Ayres.h.i.+res grazed epicureanly in the lush pastures that climbed the foot-hills.
A slender, wiry woman, who gave a fresh-from-the-laundry impression, so immaculate, so clear of skin, so smooth of hair was she, greeted Peg and Benson as they dismounted. Her smile was obliterated as Tommy's eyes lingered on her arm. She hastily pulled down her sleeves and b.u.t.toned them snugly at the wrists.
”It sure is fine to see you, Mr. Benson. You ain't taken my advice so soon and got a wife, have you?” she asked with a laugh and twinkle in the eyes which nature had intended for a merry blue, but which Life, aided and abetted by Heart and Ring and--Simms, had threshed to an apprehensive gray.
”No such luck, Mrs. Simms. This is Mrs. Courtlandt's sister, Miss Margaret Glamorgan. We came with a message from the Chief for Simms.
Where is he? At the dairy?”
”I'm sure pleased to know you, Miss. Simms has gone to--to Slippy Bend, Mr. Tommy.”
”She's lying,” Benson decided, even as he directed: ”When he gets back tell him to report at the office to-morrow noon, sharp, with his accounts. Has he been up to his old tricks again?” His eyes fell as though by accident to her arms.
The woman's eyes, her lips, changed in expression. It was as though her features, red-hot with life and interest, had been run into a mold and hardened.
”He has that, Mr. Tommy.”
”Is there any use in repeating what I have said before, that you ought to leave him?”
”An' I say as I said before, you're wrong, Mr. Tommy. I promised in the sight of G.o.d and man to stick to him as long as we both lived. I wasn't forced to marry Simms. I did it of my own free Will--my own fool will,”
contemptuously. ”I'd be a fine example to my children, wouldn't I, if I tried to get out of marriage just because it wasn't the romantic joy-ride I'd expected. It would be different if Simms abused the children; he never lays a hand on 'em. He wouldn't dare,” with a glitter in her eyes. ”You and Mr. Tommy'll stay and have a bite of lunch with us, won't you, Miss? Mr. Courtlandt always has his when he comes.”
Her change of voice and subject was so sudden that it caught Peggy's hazel eyes, glistening with tears, fixed upon her face. The girl blinked the mist away, slipped her hand under the woman's firm arm and inquired with irresistible charm:
”Will there be jelly cookies, Mrs. Simms?”
The blue came back to the eyes for a moment.
”Surely. Aha, Mr. Tommy, now I know what you came for.”
”I didn't tell her about them. It was the Big Chief.”
”Mr. Steve!” The blue suffered a total eclipse. ”Did he come with you?”
”As far as Lower Field. By the way, what's wrong with Johnny? He galloped up to Courtlandt, stuck out his hand, then beat it.”
”But he stuck out his hand?”