"But we're sae auld," said Jessie.
"No, you're not. You're not old,—not too old to study."
"Yes, schoolma'am, that's what mother used tae say," said Jessie in a softer tone. She turned her face aside. Another girl whispered to Esther, "Her father killed her mother when he was drunk."
Esther slipped her arm around Jessie's waist, and continued to speak her plans, and how much their co-operation would mean to her.
"Git y'r pardners!" shouted the fiddler.
Soon the lasses were led away to the dance; and for the time, nothing more was said of their plans; but Esther Bright knew that of all the days' work she had done in Gila, this would probably count the most.
The rooms were now crowded with people. The huge candles burned lower; the air grew more stifling; the noise more tiring.
As she looked up, she met the gaze of a young English girl, who flushed and turned her eyes away. An instant later, Kenneth Hastings seated himself by Esther and began speaking.
"I was glad to see you talking with the cowlasses, for they need the gentle, refining influence that you can bring them." He was evidently deeply in earnest. "You have no idea how full of peril their life is. You see there is something in this bold, free life of exposure that almost unsexes a woman. Some of the cowlasses are good-hearted, honest girls, but many are a hard lot. Your womanly influence would help them."
As he spoke, he caught sight of the girl who, a moment before, had attracted Esther's attention.