“Jasper's conservative and I feel I ought to do as much as I can,” Festing replied. “When you bought the place you rather put me on my mettle.”
Helen gave him a sharp glance. “I note that you spoke of it as my house when you ought to have said ours. I don't like that, Stephen.”
“It is yours. I let you buy it because it's value must go up and the money's safe. I'm glad, of course, that you have comforts I couldn't have given you, but it's my business to support my wife, and I've got to increase my capital. I want to give you things you like, bought with money I have earned.”
“You really want to feel independent of me,” Helen suggested with a smile. “I suppose it's an honest ambition, but isn't the distinction you try to make ridiculous?”
“Perhaps, in a way,” Festing agreed. “All the same, your help makes it my duty to do my best. I don't want to feel I might be forced to fall back on your dollars.”
“You are ridiculous, Stephen,” Helen rejoined. “However, let's talk about something else.”
The talked good-humoredly until the dew and growing cold drove them in. Next morning Helen got up while the sun rose from behind a bluff on the edge of the plain, but when she went out on the veranda she saw the gasoline tractor and gang-plow lurch across the rise. This indicated that Festing had been at work for some time, and she looked thoughtful as she went back into the house.
Stephen was doing too much, and she wondered whether he could keep it up. Things, however, might be easier when the crop was sown, and if not she must insist upon his hiring extra help. She liked to see him keen about his work, but for the last few weeks he had scarcely had a minute to talk to her, and she could not allow him to wear himself out. After all, her money gave her some power, and there was no reason she should not use the power for her husband's benefit.