Half a dozen of his friends were beside him when the four girls from the Rainbow Ranch were seen approaching. Down the steps he went to greet them.
Up to the last moment Jeanette had contemplated finding an excuse which would make it possible for her to remain at home.
In the past few days nothing had occurred outside her usual experience. No look or word from her stepmother had indicated that she had any thought of referring to the secret which lay between them. She had no further reason to presume that any one else shared this secret. She was by no means sure that Cecil Perry knew, thinking perhaps that her imagination had played her false and that she had been mistaken in his manner toward her.
Nevertheless she was suffering from an unusual listlessness and lack of interest in all the things she had cared for previously.
Lina and her father had observed and spoken of the change of manner and behavior, inquiring if she were ill.
To reply that she was not ill, but not feeling as well as usual was the safe fashion in which she met the situation. It was also true. Jeanette really was glad of her own dullness and lack of energy. Instead of riding over the ranch and persuading her sisters to long excursions, or following her father in his daily routine of work, she preferred to lie out under the trees, reading or making an effort to study.
The only thought that afforded her any pleasure at present was the idea of going East to school at the earliest possible hour.
Life had been giving Jeanette unusual revelations concerning her own nature.
Always she had been vaguely aware that she had a tiny streak of jealousy which sometimes amused and at others annoyed her own family.
She had wished to be first in her father's affection from the time she was little more than a baby. Since Lina was closer to her mother in disposition, Jeanette had always a childish fancy to hear herself spoken of as her father's favorite.