Lina brought both of these suggestions to her attention.
On the afternoon of the tea, long after the guests had departed, she and Jeanette sat in the window-seat in Jeanette's bedroom looking out over the moonlit fields, engaged in an ardent discussion.
"You are more changed, Jeanette, in a few weeks than I imagined it possible any human being could be," Lina protested. "Personally I see no sufficient reason for such a change. Not that I pretend to be pleased at father's marrying again, but I must say no one could be more agreeable than our new mother."
Jeanette stared mockingly toward her sister.
"Mother! I thought we had agreed not to use the title 'mother' to any one save our own mother!"
Lina frowned.
"I know, yet it is extremely uncomfortable to live with any human being and call her by no name of any kind. Father suggests that we say Jack, but that does not sound respectful. We have talked the situation over and I must say there is no reason why a stepmother so young as ours should desire to be made to appear old by half-grown daughters. So far we have not decided on any other name. If you can think of a better title, we shall all be glad, father and the girls as well.
"Jeanette, this is not what I was intending to talk about. I believe you want to take part in the riding contest in order to prove that Jeanette Colter is as skillful a horsewoman as Mrs. Colter. And in my life I never knew anything more ridiculous! As father said, suppose you do ride better than I or the girls in the neighborhood, you have no right even to dream of yourself as a successful rival of our stepmother's. I don't like the name, but you seem to wish me to employ it."
Previously having screwed up her bright, short chestnut hair into a tight little knot, Jeanette now puckered her brows and lips.
"You are a goose, Lina! Why talk as if the riding contest for women and girls would lie between the new Mrs. Colter and me? You and father are mistaken. There are other riders in the neighborhood more skillful than either of us. I simply want to be allowed to see what I can do. However, I may be ruled out as being too young." Jeanette yawned. "If this occurs I shall not care particularly; everybody at home has made such a fuss."