"Of course they would not mind. It would be wonderful. Stupid for no one of us to have proposed the idea before!"
CHAPTER XV
THE PAST
"Jeanette, if you have nothing else to do to-day suppose we take a ride together. I have scarcely seen you alone for weeks except at night when you are too tired to talk. You have no other engagement, have you?"
Jeanette Colter shook her head.
She and Via were standing out on the veranda of the lodge soon after breakfast on an August morning.
"No, Via, I have nothing especial to do. Everybody is tired at the big house from our excursion to the Indian reservation yesterday. I think the Barrets were disappointed. They expected to find the Indians as they were centuries ago. They looked entirely too matter-of-fact and comfortable; the men were sitting outside their tents smoking and sleeping, the women cooking and scolding the children. Nothing was in the least picturesque or romantic. It is only Eastern people who expect to find romance among our Western Indians at present. They appear to be under the impression that they live as they did in the old days of Lina's far-off legend of the 'Silver Arrow.'
"What is it you wish to do, Via? Do you feel strong enough for a long ride?"
A faint color crept into the pale cheeks of the younger of the two girls.
"Why not, Jeanette? I am not ill. I get very weary of people behaving as if I were. Couldn't we take our lunch and ride down to the bottom of the ravine where we found the silver arrow? I never have been there from that day to this. Besides, I want to have a nice long, intimate talk with you such as we used to have."