Innes wished she were in the neighboring tent. Tom was lashing himself into a coarse fury.
To her dismay, Gerty burst into tears. It was killing her, the disgrace, she cried. She couldn’t endure it. She couldn’t stand it there; she had not the courage to go to Los Angeles, where her friends would pity her. It was crushing her. She was not a Hardin; she was sensitive; she could not justify everything a Hardin did as right, no matter what the consequences. The pretty eyes obscured, she rushed, a streaming Niobe, from the room.
The brother and sister avoided each other’s eyes. Innes rose and cleared the table of the dishes. She made a loud noise with the running water in the shed, racketing the pans to drown the insistence of Gerty’s sobbing.
She kept listening for Tom’s step. She wanted to go with him when he left; he must not reach the office in the blackness of that mood. She wished he would not betray his feelings; yet she knew it was not he who was to blame.
When she heard the screen door slam, she flashed out the back way.
“Going?” she called after him. “Wait for me.” She dashed into her tent for her hat. She had to run to catch up with him.
“I thought I’d go and see Mrs. Parrish,” she caught up, panting. “I’ve not seen her since I came back, and I felt anxious. Have you heard how she was?”
“A man’s a fool who’ll bring in a nervous silly woman like that,” growled Hardin, stalking along. “Any man is a fool,” he added to himself, “who expects to keep the love or the respect of a woman in a place like this. Women want luxury, modern women. They can’t stand hardships.” He was a fool, like Parrish.
“Any of the rigs going over in that direction to-day?” inquired his sister. She told herself that if Gerty had made that conversational opening, she would have convicted her of tactlessness. The Parrish theme was certainly an inspired one!
“I should send MacLean over to the Wistaria. Those Indians shirk if we don’t jump in on them every day.” Then his face blackened again. “I was going to send the new machine. But I suppose the boss will be using it.”