“Even if she had, Aunt Sally, why should she bring the ring with her? It was always too small for her, and she never had it on except during the marriage ceremony. I’ve often heard her laugh about it; how Wolfgang bought a ring as big as his money would pay for, and let it go at that. She didn’t see what difference it made whether it went only on the tip of her finger or all the way down it. But she must have been here, even if we didn’t know it. I’ll take it straight to mother to keep. Then, too, I’ve idled enough. I promised my dear I’d write all her Christmas invitations for her, because she says it will save her the trouble, and be such a help to my education.”
“Christmas! Well, well. Does seem as if I couldn’t leave before then, nohow. And hear me, Jessie, darlin’, don’t you let your poor ma worry her head over your book learning. Being she was a schoolma’am herself makes her feel as if she wasn’t doing the square thing by you letting you run wild, so to speak. If the Lord means you to get schoolin’ He’ll put you in the right way of it, don’t you doubt. Who all does Gabriella set out to ask here to visit?”
“Mr. Hale, of course; and dear Mr. Sharp. I hope Ephraim will be well enough to come, too. Then there are the Winklers, from the mine; the McLeods, from their inn at Marion; and, maybe––we’ve never had a Christmas without him––maybe poor Antonio.”
“Well, all I say is––if you ask him you needn’t ask me. There wouldn’t be room on this whole ranch for the pair of us.”
“Then, of course, it’s you first. Yet, it’s all so puzzling to me. If it’s a time of ‘peace and good will,’ why do people keep on feeling angry with one another?”
“Jessica Trent, dast you stand there and look me in the face and say that you have forgive that sneaky snakey manager for cheating your mother like he did?”
“He was sorry, Aunt Sally. Every letter he sends here tells that.”
“Fiddlesticks!”
“And he’s punished, isn’t he, even if the New York folks let him go free, by his disappointment? I can fancy how dreadful it would seem, did seem to think this beautiful ranch was one’s own, and then suddenly to learn that it was not.”