“I guess Jack will not be doing some of the things he was in the habit of doing. Mrs. Dean will see to that. Say, Al, what’s happened to Amy Wells—Jack used to be sweet on her, if I remember rightly?”
“Seeing that things are as they are, Pete, and since she’s gone, I guess I’ll tell. Jack may not like it, but then he needn’t know.”
“I think Amy Wells went back East. She came back here fresh from college. Jack had known her since the time when they were just boy and girl pals. Jack is not the kind that likes more than one for all time and until now I didn’t think he’d ever like anyone else. When she came back here he was very bashful. It bothered him so much that he spoke to me about it.”
“‘You see, Al, it’s like this. There’s nothing here for a girl like her; she’s East all over. She couldn’t be satisfied out here. I know it. It came to me a while back. She doesn’t see me when I’m about and I fear I don’t count at all.’
“Well, it was true; she didn’t seem to see him. You all know Jack. Since she didn’t pay any attention to him, he saw to it he wasn’t there much. Then, you remember that chap, Stephen Browne, with an e at the end of Brown, if you please. He was very good-looking. A thoroughbred, too. You only made the mistake once, of not thinking so. You had to like him.
“Well, at that time, as some of you know, I was foreman over at the Wells, so I had many chances to watch. I didn’t like Browne. I did like Jack. That was so, at first, then I found myself liking this Easterner. Hated to own up to it, but I did. You had to like him, he was such a good scout. You could see how he felt about Miss Amy.
“Mr. Wells just sat back and watched it all. He was very fond of his niece. He liked Jack and he liked this new fellow, too. He is not the kind that would say much. Jack Dean’s staying away didn’t seem to help Jack’s chances. Jack was not moping, but he felt he wasn’t wanted nor needed.
“Then he had to go to Victoria. When he came back three months later Miss Amy had gone East, so had Browne. He never asked any questions and Mr. Wells never offered any information.
“If I had had half a chance, I’d have told him my suspicion. But you can’t go to a man like Dean with a suspicion and nothing more. For another thing, it was Dean’s fight and he wasn’t asking for any help. But my suspicion is this, that Miss Amy didn’t care for Browne in that way. I learned that from a word or two I overheard. I don’t know even now whether she cared for Jack, she didn’t show her hand that easily.”
“How many years ago is that, Al?” asked one of the listeners.