"I'm glad to see you," she said, greeting Jessy eagerly. "It's a week since anybody has been in to talk to me, and Tom's away again. It's a trying thing to be the wife of a western business man—you so seldom see him."
Jessy made herself comfortable in an easy-chair before she referred to one of her companion's remarks.
"Where has Mr. Bendle gone now?" she asked.
"Into the bush to look at a mine. He left this morning and it will be a week before he's back. Then he's going across the Selkirks with that Clavering man about some irrigation scheme."
This suggested one or two questions which Jessy desired to ask, but she did not frame them immediately. Mrs. Bendle was incautious and discursive, but there was nothing to be gained by being precipitate.
"It must be dull for you," she sympathized.
"I don't mean to complain. Tom's reasonable; the last time I said anything about being left alone he bought me a pair of ponies. He said I could have either them or an automobile, and I took the ponies. I thought them safer."
Jessy smiled.
"You're fortunate in several ways; there are not a great many people who can make such presents. But while everybody knows your husband has been successful lately, I'm a little surprised that he's able to go into Clavering's irrigation scheme. It's a very expensive one, and I understand that they intend to confine it to a few, which means that those interested will have to subscribe handsomely."
"Tom," explained her companion, "likes to have a number of different things in hand. He told me it was wiser, when I said that I couldn't tell my friends back East what he really is, because he seemed to be everything at once. But your brother's interested in a good many things, too, isn't he?"