"If it were absolutely necessary for your health or happiness, perhaps I would agree to see things differently. I have thought over the entire situation and decided it is better that you remain at home another year. Had you not brought up the subject, I should not have spoken of it for the present. Now I wish you to realize that I am displeased by your state of mind, as well as your behavior. It is my wish and my intention that you continue to live in your own home until you acquire a new attitude toward your stepmother. If you do not appreciate her, the fault lies not in her but in you. Say and think nothing more concerning this boarding-school project. I will not discuss the question with you again."
Small wonder that Jeanette was in a state of bitter and intense rebellion against all family authority, especially her own.
She had not dared openly to defy her father. He was a man of quiet, firm will, a manager of men for many years, men of strange histories and temperaments who had come to live and work on the Rainbow Ranch. Yet neither had Jeanette submitted. His own daughter, a portion of this same strong will she had inherited from him.
To-night as she lay awake staring ahead in the darkness her thoughts were not engaged with the idea of submission; rather was she planning how to accomplish her own end.
Should she tell Mrs. Perry of her father's refusal? In this case, and in defiance of his authority, would Mrs. Perry still be willing to come to her assistance? In spite of the affection she undoubtedly felt for her, Jeanette feared not.
Could she conceal from Mrs. Perry her father's point of view? This appeared still more impossible, since in all probability her father would thank Mrs. Perry for her kindness and at the same time decline to acquiesce.
As she lay quietly in bed totally unable to sleep, Jeanette seemed to be facing a stone wall in which there was no opening or loophole of escape. She was not old enough to realize there may be invisible ways around or through such walls which time alone shows us.
When at last Jeanette fell asleep she had almost lost hope.
Sleeping more soundly than usual, she found herself waking with a sense of depression more profound than before. As she sat up in bed her eyes were burning uncomfortably and an instant later she was struggling for breath.
She gazed about her. Even in the darkness she could discern that the atmosphere of the room showed a queer haze. A smell penetrated her nostrils and her senses awoke. The room was filling with smoke.