Helen thought there was something humiliating to Bob in his wife's patience, but she was moved. Mrs. Charnock loved her husband, though she knew his faults. Then Sadie resumed in a harder voice:
“Anyhow, he's mine and I know how to keep what belongs to me.”
“I imagine you will keep him. I have no wish to take him away.”
“Well, that's why I came. I wanted to see you, and now I'm satisfied. Bob needs a friend like your husband and he puts Steve pretty high. If you can see your way to let us drive over now and then evenings——”
Helen pondered this. Stephen might object, but he was not unreasonable, and his society would certainly be good for Bob. She was not altogether pleased by the thought of the Charnocks' visits, but Sadie's resolve to help her husband had touched her. Then there was something flattering in the hint that she and Stephen could take a part in his reformation.
“Very well,” she said. “I hope you will come when you like. It will do Stephen no harm to get a rest instead of hurrying back to work after supper.”
Sadie looked grateful. “We'll certainly come. I've talked to you as I'd have talked to nobody else, but you know Bob most as well as I do. But perhaps there's enough said. Won't you show me the house?”
Helen realized that she had made an alliance with Mrs. Charnock for Bob's protection, and was conscious of a virtuous thrill. The work she had undertaken was good, but she remembered with faint uneasiness that she had pledged her husband to it without his consent. She showed Sadie the house, and while there was much the latter admired, she made, from her larger knowledge of the plains, a number of suggestions that Helen thought useful. By and by Bob returned with Festing for supper, and stopped for another hour. When he and Sadie had gone Festing frowned as he glanced at his watch.
“It's too late to finish the job I wanted to do tonight,” he said, and indicated the dark figures of a man and horses silhouetted against the sunset on the crest of the rise. “There's Jules coming home. He couldn't get on without me.”
Helen pretended not to notice his annoyance. “After all, you're not often disturbed, and a little relaxation is good. I've no doubt you had an amusing talk with Bob.”