Connie tried to move her right arm and winced with pain. She thought the muscles weren’t quite as sore as they had been. Perhaps she would enter the riding contest anyway.
The girl was sitting moodily by the window when she heard hoofbeats in the courtyard. Enid came riding up to the door.
Connie’s depression vanished as if by magic and she rushed out to greet the ranch girl.
“Oh, Connie, I just heard about how you hurt yourself!” Enid cried as she alighted and looped her lines over the hitching post. “Will you be out of the rodeo?”
“I’m not sure,” Connie answered. She felt warmed because Enid had cared enough to ride over to the ranch. At the same time she was ashamed because she had doubted the girl’s friendliness.
“Oh, I hope you are able to ride,” Enid went on. “It will be too mean if you’re forced out of the contest.”
“Do come in and stay for lunch,” Connie invited cordially.
“Oh, no I can’t,” Enid said hastily. “I really shouldn’t have come, only Dad went to town to see a man——”
She broke off in confusion as if she had revealed too much.
“Doesn’t your father like you to come here?” Connie asked quietly.