Donald tiptoed softly back to the trail. He stood for some time with his hand on the saddle, his head bowed in deep thought. “Poor little kid,” he said gently, then whistling a lively tune, he slowly retraced his steps to the cabin. He entered the clearing just in time to see Connie as she disappeared in the timber across the field. He did not want her to know that he was aware of her flight, so he knocked loudly on the door and shouted her name. A raven croaked derisively from the top of a dead tree. The pony raised his head to eye him silently. Connie’s pet deer came around the corner of the barn, a look of gentle questioning in her beautiful big eyes.
Donald rode slowly back to camp. Connie’s distress had touched his heart; her heart-breaking sobs were still ringing in his ears. “It is not that Wainwright does not love his daughter,” mused Donald. “It must be that he is very poor.
“Don’t see how I can help,” his thoughts ran on. “One can’t very well suggest to a father that he buy clothes for his child.”
Andy rang the lunch-bell, and there was a wild but good-natured scramble for the tables.
A long table had been arranged in the big dining-room for the officials and Janet’s party to which Donald had invited Mr. Wainwright.
“Did you find Connie?” queried Wainwright.
“No,” lied Donald, “I couldn’t find her.”
Janet’s friends were having a merry time. There was laughter, jesting and gay repartee from all sides. Douglas was in his element, his quips and brilliant sallies keeping the diners in a continual uproar.
As Donald glanced around the big table at the laughing faces of the gay party, he tried to visualize Connie dressed as one of these fashionably-clad girls who represented Vancouver’s “younger set.” The vision he conjured caused him to smile dreamily.
Janet had manœuvred to secure a seat beside Donald. In spite of all her artful contriving, she had been unable to have more than a few words with her father’s busy general superintendent since her arrival. She noticed the dreamy smile on his face and wondered what could be the cause.