They were discussing the various events of the day.
Jeanette walked over to her stepmother. She had finished eating and was before an open window with John Marshall and Cecil Perry beside her. Both young men were her admirers.
Jeanette admitted to herself that she was looking extremely handsome.
Her riding costume was similar, save that it was a golden-brown cloth with the coat and skirt slightly longer.
The two suits had arrived at the ranch only the day before. Jeanette's had been a surprise gift from her stepmother. On arising that morning she had found the entire outfit on a chair beside her bed.
"I want to thank you for my new habit," Jeanette began as cordially as possible. Inwardly she was annoyed that the present had been bestowed upon her by her stepmother rather than her father, whose idea it should have been.
Jack flushed and smiled.
"Oh, don't thank me, please, Jeanette, I don't like being thanked, as I never know how to show when I am grateful."
She then moved forward to speak to their neighbors, Senator and Mrs. Marshall and Peter Stevens. They were at this moment entering the dining-room door which opened on to a broad veranda.
"We have stopped by to wish you good-luck, Mrs. Colter," Senator Marshall remarked. He was a middle-aged man, the father of the younger man who was a friend and frequent visitor at the Rainbow Ranch.