Jennie was, however, instructed to lose no time in sending a "wire" to Ranger's, which ran—"Stay—All right," in the hope that it might produce the effect desired.
The letter which followed was such as only a mother might be expected under the circumstances to write, and was filled with anxious inquiries as to his future intentions.
CHAPTER XXVI.
MARY TRUMAN.
"... He beheld a vision, and adored the thing he saw."
WORDSWORTH.
Mary Truman, the young woman so suddenly deprived of her only relations by the unfortunate accident on the railway near to M'Lean Station, and whose prospects had been so terribly blighted, had not been an idle spectator at the Ranch of the events which have been transpiring.
With no fixed or clearly defined duties to perform, since her future was still undecided, she was yet able to find occupation in the house and its belongings of a character sufficient to prevent her from having many idle moments.
Naturally of a cheerful disposition, she was wont to be considered the embodiment of good humour "in the old house at home."
A pair of laughing blue eyes, a little "tip-tilted" nose, a petite figure, and a mass of rich, wavy auburn hair, added to a saucy expression of countenance, made up an ensemble that her all too sensitive, and it may be sensible, cousin had found it impossible to resist.
Her parents were originally in a small way of business at Exeter, but having the misfortune to lose her mother some three weeks after her birth, the father, within a week following the funeral, disappeared, and nothing had been seen or heard of him since.