"I heard from my partners today." He went on after a little: "They're feeling mighty good. Struck another vein that promises better than the one we have. I ought to go out, but I——" He paused abruptly. "Did you ever see the Rockies in late fall? O, they're mighty, mighty as the sky! I wish you'd—I wish we could make up a party some time and go out. I'd take a car——"
She faced the situation.
"I'll tell you what would be nice: When you and Mary take your wedding trip I'll go along to take care of you both."
Owen fairly staggered under the import of that speech, and could find nothing to say for some time.
"Did you have a good time tonight?" he asked again.
"Splendid! I always do when I go to Isabel's." Thereafter they walked in silence.
Rose fell to thinking of young Harvey in the days which followed. There was allurement in his presence quite different from that of any other. She could not remember anything he had said, only he had made her laugh and his eyes were frank and boyish. She felt his grace and the charm that comes from security of position and freedom from care.
He brought up to her mind by force of contrast, her father, with his eyes dimmed with harsh winds and dust and glowing sun. He was now spending long, dull days wandering about the house and barn, going to bed early in order to rise with the sun, to begin the same grind of duties the day following. Young Harvey's life was the opposite from this.
He admired her, she felt that as distinctly as if he had spoken to her. He wanted to be near her. He had asked her to help him with the chafing-dish that night, and to pour the beer while he stirred the gluey mass of cheese. All the little things by which a young man expresses his admiration he had used almost artlessly, certainly boyishly.
There was nothing there but a vista of pleasures, certain relief from toil and worry. What a marvelous thing to be suddenly relieved from all fear of hunger and every harassing thought about the future! And it was not a question of an old man of wealth, or a man of repulsive appearance; it was a question of taking a bright, handsome, clean-souled man, together with his money. She felt the power to put out her hand and claim him as her own.