“What shall I do, Louise?” she asked, one night. They were sitting in darkness. From their east window they could see the gleaming red splotches that were fires on the flat.
“What do you mean, Mary?” asked Louise, dreamily. She was thinking how much sterner Gordon grew every day. He still had a smile for his friends, but he always smiled under defeat. That is what hurt so. She had noticed that very evening at supper how gray his hair was getting at the temples. He had looked lonely and sad. Was it then all so hopeless?
“I mean, to make a living for myself,” Mary answered, earnestly. “There is no one in the world belonging to me now. There were only father and I. What shall I do, Louise?”
“Mary, dear, dear Mary, what are you thinking of doing?”
“Anything,” she answered, her proud reticence giving way before her need, “that will keep me from the charity of my friends. The frock I have on, plain as it is, is mine through the generosity of Paul Langford. The bread I eat he pays for. He—he lied to me, Louise. He told me the cowmen had made a purse for my present needs. They hadn’t. It was all from him. I found out. Mrs. White is poor. She can’t keep a great, strapping girl like me for nothing. I am such a hearty eater, and he has been paying her, Louise, for what I ate. Think of it! I thought I should die when I found it out. I made her promise not to take another cent from him—for me. So I have been working to make it up. I have washed and ironed and scrubbed and baked. I was man of affairs at the ranch while Mr. White went out with the gang for the Fall round-up. I have herded. But one has to have things besides one’s bread. The doctor was paid out of that make-believe purse, but it must all be made up to Paul Langford—every cent of it.”
“Mr. Langford would be very much hurt if you should do that,” began Louise, slowly. “It was because of him, you know, primarily, that—”
“He owes me nothing,” interrupted Mary, sharply.
“Oh,” said Louise, smiling in the dark.
“I believe I could teach school,” went on Mary, with feverish haste, “if I could get a school to teach.”
“I should think Mr. Gordon could help you to secure a place here,” said Louise.