The house was filled with flowers from the big garden, a profusion of roses and the simpler flowers for which England is famous, wall flowers, daisies, sweet-peas and canterbury bells, named in honor of the great Cathedral at Canterbury.
In the dining room, which opened just back of the library, the table was already laid for dinner.
Evidently there was to be a gala occasion, and yet this was unusual, for since the war began there had been few entertainments at Kent House or in any great English home.
Nevertheless Lady Kent herself presently came into the dining room and looked with the deepest interest at the beautiful table, touching things here and there and making slight alterations in the arrangement of the flowers.
The table was in white except for a stripe of rose-colored satin through the center and a bowl of pink roses.
Jack had on a house dress of some soft white material, as she was not wearing mourning and had not worn it after Vive's death. There was too much black being used in the world.
She was standing still for a moment, frowning slightly, but with interest, not dissatisfaction, when another person entered and came up beside her.
"I have been taking a long walk, Jack, trying to get rid of my restlessness and to make the time pass more swiftly. I wish you had been with me. But how beautiful your place is! I don't see how you have managed to keep things in such splendid condition with so many of your men at the front. I have been talking to some real English dairymaids down in the left paddock. They made me think of the stories and nursery rhymes we used to read when we were children. Then England seemed as far away from the old Wyoming ranch as the planet Mars. However, I am the last one of the Ranch Girls to visit you in England. Ralph's work has made our coming to you impossible before and now the war has brought us to this side of the world, for how long none of us can say. Have you heard anything from Frieda?"
Lady Kent shook her head slowly.
She was watching Jean and at the same time thinking how pretty and untroubled she looked. Jean's marriage to Ralph Merritt seemed to have turned out an unqualified success. Ralph had come to be known as a leading American engineer, but now had given up all the other work he had been engaged in to offer his services as an engineer to France. And Jean had left her little girl at home with Jim and Ruth at the Rainbow Ranch so that she could be nearer her husband.