"Perhaps you will tell me your name and let me tell you mine?"
Jeanette shook her head.
"No, thank you, no candy at this hour of the morning. I confess I love it far too much at other times. Oh, I'll tell you my name gladly enough. It is Jeanette Colter. This is our ranch, the Rainbow Ranch. Mr. Stevens is a friend of my father's and my new stepmother's."
Unconsciously the girl's expression changed to one only a little less gloomy than her companion's had been a short time before.
At this he whistled sympathetically.
"Have you a stepmother? Is she new or have you had her some time? I tell you I never mean my mother to marry again. I have told her any number of times how I should hate it. She has promised never to marry without my consent—and that she will never receive."
"You strike me as being extremely selfish," Jeanette contemplated saying and then desisted. After all, her new companion was only expressing the sentiment she felt. Her wishes had not been consulted.
"You have not told me your name," she remarked more amiably than she so far had spoken.
"Cecil Perry. You won't like it. Mother prefers that people pronounce 'Cecil' in the English fashion."
Jeanette shrugged her shoulders.