CHAPTER XII
THE REFUSAL
"Sorry, Jeanette, I cannot do what you ask. Please be patient a few moments. I should regret your going from home just now, and feel it would be a mistake. Yet you know I take your view of the matter into account as well as my own. I have tried always to be friends with you, not to force you to believe as I do, and for that reason have been specially disappointed in you of late, dear. But this is not what I want to tell you. The truth is I have not the money to afford your going East to school at present."
Jeanette felt the pressure of her father's arm on her own. It occurred to her that suddenly he seemed older than she had ever appreciated.
She glanced up at him, hardly comprehending what he had confided to her. His dark hair was graying, there were deeper lines in his strong, fine face, yet his eyes were as blue as ever. Jeanette often had thought that her father had the bluest eyes she had ever seen.
Finally she became aware of the gravity of what he was saying.
"You know, dear, that we have lived in the big house on the Rainbow Ranch, not because it was our own, or because we could afford a home of such elegance, but because no one else was here to occupy it. The former Ranch Girls, Jean and Olive and Frieda, are married and away. My income as manager of the ranch and part owner has been sufficient for our expenses until of late.
"You have realized, perhaps, that the ranch has not been paying recently. There is a business depression all over the country and we have had to suffer as well as other people."
Jeanette's breath was coming quickly.
Was her father actually refusing her request and offering as a reason for his refusal a valid argument? Would entreaty, temper, all the weapons at her command, fail to move him?