CHAPTER XII
THE TENT HOUSE
"Leave Old Jezebel to herself and she soon returns to old ways. She likes them best for she is a woman."
Musings of the Elephant.
Pen's voice, when it came, was lower and fuller than he had remembered it but there was the old soft chuckle in it.
"Cross patch! Draw the latch! Say please, like a nice child and then I'll play a game of cards with you."
Jim rapped on the door and stepped in. "Hello, Pen!" he said, holding out his hand.
She was changed and yet unchanged. A little thinner, older, yet more beautiful in her young womanhood than in her charming girlhood. Her chestnut hair was wrapped in soft braids around her head instead of being bundled up in her neck. Her eyes looked larger and deeper set but they were the same steady, clear eyes of old; ageless eyes; the eyes of the woman who thinks. She had the same full soft lips, and as Jim held out his hand the same flash of dimples.