"Majah, what have you done with our ice-cream cow?"
"She went dry during the winter," said the Major; "no demand on her. 'Supply regulated by the demand,' you know."
They drifted on into the horse barn.
"We're in Ramsey's domain now," said the Major, looking at Arthur, who stood with his hand on the hip of one of the big gray horses.
Edith turned and perceived Arthur for the first time. A slight shock went through her sensitive nature, as if some faint prophecy of great storms came to her in the widening gaze of his dark eyes.
"Oh, do you drive the horses?" she asked quickly.
"Yes, for the present; I am the plowman," he said, in the wish to let her know he was not a common hand. "I hope to be promoted."
Her eyes rested a moment longer on his sturdy figure and his beautifully bronzed skin, then she turned to her companions.
After they had driven away, Arthur finished his work in silence; he could hardly bring himself to speak to the people at the supper table, his mind was in such tumult.
He went up into his little room, drew a chair to the window facing the glorious mountains, and sat there until the ingulfing gloom of rising night climbed to the glittering crown of white soaring a mile above the lights of the city; but he did not really see the mountains; his eyes only turned toward them as a cat faces the light of a hearth. It helped him to think, somehow.