CHAPTER XVI
Via was ill for a few days after their luncheon in the canyon and Jeanette felt the family attitude unfavorable.
No one uttered a reproach, so perhaps the idea was an imaginary one. Certainly Via had proposed the trip herself and no one had opposed her. However, finding that Via did not require her presence as a nurse and actually seemed to prefer her stepmother or Lina, Jeanette felt no special compunction at remaining away.
There was nothing serious the matter. Via had only taken cold, but because she was frail special attention was paid her small ailments.
So, after a few moments, conversation each morning and an affectionate inquiry, Jeanette gladly hurried off to the big house and her new friends.
She did not desire to be alone with Via again for some time. She had no thought that Via was definitely aware of her own failure to play fair. What she feared and resented was her younger sister's strange faculty for appreciating the atmosphere in which human beings lived. Oftentimes she guessed their thoughts and moods before they were fully conscious of them themselves.
Moreover, life at the big house was certainly more entertaining and worth while at present than staying at home with one's own family or sharing in their amusements.
The day following the one spent with her younger sister in the depth of the ravine, Margery Barret and Jeanette managed to arrange a long-desired ride together, with no one accompanying them.
Upon this ride Margery was able to confide a piece of news she had been longing to tell Jeanette for twelve hours.
"It was quite by accident, Jeanette, I had no thought of any such consequence," she murmured impressively, as she and her companion moved slowly along beside each other, walking their horses so their conversation might not be disturbed. "I told Mrs. Perry that you wished to go East to school with me this fall. She agreed that it was a delightful idea and might be extremely good for you. Then I told her your father did not feel he could afford the expense, because of his recent business difficulties."
Although no other human beings were in sight at this moment and only a wide stretch of country about them, Margery lowered her voice still more.
"What do you think, Jeanette? Mrs. Perry said that it would give her the greatest possible pleasure to be permitted to pay your expenses. The truth is she has taken the most absurd fancy to you, such a fancy that I should think Cecil would be jealous, but to do him justice he does not appear to be in the least."
Margery leaned from her horse in order to give Jeanette's arm a gentle pressure.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful, dear, if your father would agree? Mrs. Perry is so rich and generous you need not mind, the pleasure would be greater for her than for you. I am so romantic I have even been thinking that she might want to adopt you some day and leave you a portion of her fortune. You need not laugh, Jeanette Colter, I only wish I were in your place. I have been struggling to induce Mrs. Perry to take a fancy to me for years! She is sweet and kind to me, but that is all! About you she has said several times that she would give a great deal to have you as her daughter."
Jeanette sat more erectly on her pony, her face changing color in characteristic fashion.
"I am afraid Mrs. Perry hardly realizes what she says. If she knew me better I am the last person in the world she would desire to have near her. I trust that she will not ask my own family for a certificate of character; no one of them would give it me."
Biting her lips, Jeanette was silent a moment, apparently thinking deeply.
The ranch land this afternoon appeared enchantingly lovely. The alfalfa fields were in full bloom, swimming with hosts of purple clover. The grain was ripening quickly and was now pure gold. In the waste places the desert midsummer wild-flowers were blooming, rose and white and cornflower blue.
Nevertheless, Jeanette's mind and heart held no space for them.
If her father would agree to allow her to accept Mrs. Perry's offer, Jeanette felt that her own pride would not stand in the way. Some day they would be able to return the money. Mrs. Perry would not care for this arrangement, but could not object, since it would make conditions easier for them all. Thus the desire of her heart would be granted at once, when all desires of the heart should be granted.
During the remainder of the ride, and in the course of every hour afterwards when she was not asleep, Jeanette dreamed of this possibility.
One afternoon Mrs. Perry shyly approached the subject to her. She confessed that she did not enjoy the idea of speaking to Mr. Colter, requesting Jeanette to prepare the way for her.
This Jeanette agreed to do.
Now as the days passed by the psychological moment never seemed to arrive. Closely Jeanette watched her father. Still he appeared harassed by business troubles, spending less time with his family than usual.
If this drew the other three girls closer to their stepmother for amusement and sympathy, Jeanette found her new friends at Rainbow Castle more and more absorbing.
Never had the neighborhood been half so gay as since Mrs. Perry rented the big house.
She was a society woman and not happy unless she were surrounded by people and entertaining.
Following Cecil's suggestion, a target had been set up on the left side of the lawn and here the members of the Club of the Silver Arrow were free to practice at any hour. The target was at some distance off, since archery was a new sport among the young people and the flights of the arrows more than a little uncertain.
One afternoon the members of the club had been invited to afternoon tea.
At present it was five o'clock and tea was about to be served.
The older guests, following their usual custom, were on the big veranda of the front lawn, leaving the younger club members entirely free from their society.
Flinging off the pink muslin hat she had been wearing, Martha Putnam wiped a few drops of perspiration from her face, sighed and then laughed.
"Jeanette Colter," she called across to the other girl, sitting on the ground a few yards away, "I have been thanking the kind fates all afternoon that we did not decide to award the mysterious silver arrow to the member of our club who became the best archer. After my efforts this afternoon I am certain that I am less apt to succeed as an archer than to prove myself the most courageous of us all. By the way, don't you think we have been singularly lacking in opportunities to display our courageous natures this summer? Jeanette won the riding contest, but no one has accomplished anything else exciting or dramatic. During other summers people in the neighborhood have nearly drowned in one of the swimming pools, or horses have run away. There have been accidents that might offer opportunities for heroism."
Martha repressed a slight yawn of fatigue and extended her hand for the iced tea Cecil Perry was at this instant offering her.
"I do think it will be embarrassing if no one wins the silver arrow this summer after all our plans."
"Sorry I cannot accommodate you, Martha, by risking my neck so you could have the glory and distinction of saving me. I might try to drown in Rainbow Creek when you were near, but it would be difficult, the water is so shallow at present. Want to walk over toward the creek with me and see me make the attempt? Rescuing me would undoubtedly spoil your pink frock," Cecil Perry challenged.
Martha laughed.
"Oh, I was bluffing so far as I am concerned. I have no courage of any kind. Just the same I have sometimes wondered whether the silver arrow is to be bestowed on the one of us who displays the greatest physical courage or the greatest moral courage?"
"Ask us another nice, easy question, Martha," Eric Lawton demanded teasingly, "only do wait until we have partaken of refreshments. I won't feel equal to answering until then."
"Perhaps you need not trouble to reply, Eric. None of us need struggle to win the award. I told you that Via and I beheld an Indian youth searching for something near the magic lake at the foot of the ravine where the arrow fell. It may be he was 'White Heart,' the reincarnation of Lina's legend, who has returned to look for the lost arrow. In that case I think it our duty to return the silver arrow to him," Jeanette Colter remarked.
"You must have been dreaming, Jeanette, you and Via," Lina remonstrated. "I read you a legend out of a book; such improbable things do not occur in real life."
Jeanette's eyebrows met together in the fashion that revealed either unusual feeling on her part or else an idea that must be given serious thought.
"Nonsense, Lina, it is in real life where improbable things do take place, otherwise no one would know how to write of them.
"So far as the silver arrow is concerned, I think it might be a good thing for us all to surrender the mysterious arrow to its owner. Any unusual display of courage by one of us might have disastrous consequences. I agree with Martha, however, we must decide whether the silver arrow is the prize for physical or moral courage. My own idea is we should ask for both."
"Oh, Jeanette, do please let us talk of something more frivolous, it is such a perfect summer afternoon," one of the other girls protested. "I don't know what has happened to you, but of late you seem so changed."
"Hope I have changed for the better," Jeanette answered lightly, though her cheeks flushed.