“It mightn't be prudent. If I stay longer, I shall, no doubt, feel unequal to going back at all. My industrious fit's very recent and good resolutions fail.”
“Pshaw!” said Sadie. “Try to be serious. I must see Helen to-morrow and can't take you. She may have a message for her husband.”
“Couldn't she write the message, if you went after I had gone?”
“NO,” said Sadie firmly. “She must send it now.”
Charnock looked hard at her and nodded. “Well, perhaps it's a good plan. Meddling is sometimes dangerous, but one can trust you.”
Sadie, wrapped in furs, drove across the prairie next afternoon, and found Helen at home. The latter looked rather forlorn and dispirited, and Sadie felt that she had undertaken a delicate task.
“Bob has come home for three days,” she said by and by. “He can't stop longer, but I thought you'd like to know how they are getting on with their contract.”
“Stephen writes to me,” Helen replied with a hint of sharpness.
“I guess he does,” Sadie agreed. “Still, from what Bob says, they haven't much time for letters, and he talked to me about the work all last evening. He could leave when Stephen couldn't because he's the junior partner and doesn't know much about railroading yet.”
Helen smiled, rather curiously. “Do you feel you must explain why your husband came home and mine did not?”