Leaving the house, I mounted my horse again and rode off in the direction I knew Sheilah would come, my heart all the time raging within me against the injustice of which I considered myself the victim. What right had old McLeod to talk to me in such a fashion? I was not his son; and, poor fool that I was, I told myself that if I liked I would go to a thousand races and ride in every one of them, before I would consider him or anyone else in the matter. But one thing puzzled me considerably, and that was how he had come to know so much of my private affairs. Since it had been kept such a profound secret, who could have told him about my gambling, and my promise to ride Pete's horse in the steeplechase? So far as I was aware, no one but Sheilah knew, to whom I had told my whole story. Could she have revealed my shortcomings to her father? In my inmost heart, I knew that she had not said a word. But I was so angry that I could not do justice to anybody, not even to Sheilah herself. God help me!
For an hour I rode on; then, crossing a bit of open plain, I saw Sheilah ahead, mounted on a big brown horse, coming cantering towards me. When she made out who I was, she quickened her pace, and we were presently alongside each other, riding back together. Angry as I was, I could not help noticing how pretty her face looked under her big hat, and how well she sat her horse.
'You seem put out about something, Jim,' she said, when I had turned my horse and we had gone a few yards.
'I am,' I answered, 'very much put out. Sheilah, why did you tell your father what I told you the other day?'
'What have I told him?'
'Why, about my playing cards at Whispering Pete's, and my resolve to ride in the steeplechase next week?'
'I have not told him, Jim. You surely don't think I would be as mean as that, do you?'
'But how did he come to hear of it?' I asked, ignoring the last portion of her speech. 'He taxed me with it this morning, and was kind enough to preach me a sermon on the strength of it.'
'I have not said a word to him. You seem to have a very poor opinion of me, Jim.'
'You must admit that it's strange he should have known!'