It was not until Camilla was gratefully enthroned in a big chair by the open fireplace that Cortland Bent found a chance to speak to her.
"What possessed you, Camilla? You rode like a demon. You've dragged poor Rita's pride in the mire. Riding is her long suit. She's not used to yielding her laurels as she did to-day. I fancy she's not at all happy about it."
"Why?" asked Camilla, wonderingly.
"You don't know Rita as I do. She runs things out here pretty much in her own way." He chuckled quietly. "Good Lord, but you did put it over her."
"I'm sorry if she feels badly about it," she put in mendaciously.
"There's nothing to be sorry about. You won out against odds on a horse she'd thrown into the discard. That doesn't make her feel any sweeter. She's a queer one. There's no telling how she'll take things. But she doesn't like being the under dog, and she won't forget this soon."
"Neither will I," said Camilla, smiling to herself. "She scored one on me yesterday, but I fancy our accounts are about even."
"Yes, they are. I suppose there's no use warning you."
"No, there isn't, Cort. I fancy I'll be able to look out for myself."
He examined her keenly and realized that she was looking at Jeff, who stood with some men at the end of the room toasting their hostess. He seemed to have forgotten Camilla's existence. In the field before they came into the house Jeff had spoken to her, and when Janney had given Camilla the Brush, Jeff had congratulated her noisily and with the heartiness and enthusiasm he always showed over things which reflected credit on himself. In their private life Jeff still stood a little in awe of Camilla. He realized that his many deficiencies put him at a disadvantage with a woman of her stamp, and, no matter what he felt, he had never asked more of her in the way of companionship than she had been willing to give him ungrudgingly; he was tolerant of her literary moods, her music, her love of pictures, and the many things he could not understand. She was the only cultured woman he had ever known, and his marriage had done little to change his way of thinking of her. Camilla had not meant to abide forever in the shrine in which Jeff had enthroned her.