He lay down, extending himself full length on the grass while the arrow was being passed from one guest to the other, as if he had no further interest in the subject. Jeanette's previous remark certainly shut him out from joining any society that she and her friends might have in mind.
Cecil had been a good deal spoiled, but these past few weeks in the Far West were making him aware of the fact.
Jeanette Colter was partly responsible.
Lonely and not knowing how to entertain himself in the country, he had spent a large portion of his time at the Rainbow Ranch.
His host and guardian, Peter Stevens, was away from home several days out of each week. He expressed the wish that Cecil should see as much of the Colter family as possible without boring them. For Mrs. Colter and her husband he felt a genuine admiration. He also believed the new Ranch Girls would teach Cecil many of the things he should have learned before.
In their different ways they were teaching him.
A boyish admiration for Mrs. Colter was in itself an inspiration. He never had known a woman who could do so many things brilliantly well and remain unspoiled. She was acknowledged to be one of the finest horsewomen in the State of Wyoming, where every woman and girl rode well. She had traveled and occupied an important social position in England and yet was simplicity itself. She actually had run for Congress against his own guardian, and oftentimes since his election Mr. Stevens had insisted that Mrs. Colter would have made the better representative of the state that had first granted the suffrage to women.
Lina and Olivia Colter, Cecil liked extremely well. If Olivia had been older he would have preferred her for his companion, as he was not so interested in books and study as the oldest of the Colter girls wished him to be.
Eda was too young and too shy with strangers to make any special impression upon him, save that she fascinated him by her odd beauty and grace.
Jeanette Colter he did not like, and yet in a way she entertained him more than her sisters.