“What do you mean by fastidious?”
“It’s a little difficult to define, but I certainly don’t mean pernicketty. Of course, there is a fastidiousness which makes one shrink from unpleasant things, but Harry’s is the other kind. It impels him to do them every now and then.”
Agatha made no answer. She was uneasily conscious that it might not be advisable to think too much about this man, and in another minute or two they reached the homestead. The house was a plain frame building that had grown out of an older and smaller one of logs, part of which remained. It was much the same with the barns and stables, for, while they were stoutly built of framed timber or logs, one end of most of them was lower than the rest, and in some cases consisted of poles and sods. Even to her untrained eyes all she saw suggested order, neatness, and efficiency. The whole was flanked and sheltered by a big birch bluff, in which trunks and branches showed through a thin green haze of tiny opening leaves.
A man whom Wyllard had sent after them took the horses.
Agatha commented on what she called the added-to look of the buildings.
“The Range,” said Mrs. Hastings, “has grown rapidly since Harry took hold. The old part represents the high-water mark of his father’s efforts. Of course,” she added reflectively, “Harry has had command of some capital since a relative of his died, but I never thought that explained everything.”
They entered the house, and a gray-haired Swedish woman led them through several match-boarded rooms into a big, cool hall. She left them there for a while, and Agatha was absorbed for a minute or two with her impressions of the house. It was singularly empty by comparison with the few English homesteads that she had seen. There were no curtains nor carpets nor hangings of any kind, but it was commodious and comfortable.
“What can a bachelor want with a place like this?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” answered Mrs. Hastings; “perhaps it’s Harry’s idea of having everything proportionate. The Range is quite a big, and generally a prosperous, farm. Besides, it’s likely that he doesn’t contemplate remaining a bachelor forever. Indeed, Allen and I sometimes wonder how he has escaped marriage for so long.”
“Is ‘escaped’ the right word?” Agatha asked.