"I thought perhaps you might have run away, Mrs. Colter; you know you have in times past."
Jack shook her head.
"Never really run away, Jim, only for a few hours, or at most a day at a time. Now that I have grown elderly I suppose I should give up even such short breaks for liberty. If I ever do again, please remember that I shall always come back to you. What are you intending to do before breakfast?"
Jack made no mention of having seen Jeanette ride off a half hour before, not knowing whether it would meet her father's approval.
"I'm off to the ranch house to see the men before they start to work for the day. If I wait until after breakfast they will have gone. I shall ride out after them later."
Jack laughed.
"Glad to be at home and at work, Jim? A honeymoon is hard on a man, isn't it? No, I won't go with you. I am going into the kitchen for coffee. I want to be here when the girls come downstairs and to preside properly at the breakfast table the first morning of our home-coming. Don't be late."
Jack kept her eyes fastened on her husband for a moment after he turned away.
She was aware that many persons felt their marriage a mistake. Devoted as they were to their guardian, Jean and Olive, the two former Ranch Girls, had hesitated. Only Frieda, who so rarely approved of anything her older sister thought or did, had been openly pleased with Jack's marriage to their former guardian.
"Jim has always been the one person who could make Jack do what she should," Frieda had argued in a tone of relief, as though her own responsibility were partly lifted.