“Europe?” Madame Van Mater reflected a moment. “An excellent idea! I could have planned nothing better for Olive, for travel and experience may give her just the ease and culture she needs. But who will look after you?”
At this moment Ruth Drew slowly approached towards Jack and her companion. She too was looking pale and worn from her long vigil of watching, but she smiled as Jack, reaching forth, took tight hold of her hand.
“Why Miss Drew will chaperon us, of course,” she answered. “She will not go home with us this summer, but she has promised to go abroad afterwards and to stay forever if we wish.”
Before Ruth could do more than make a conventional reply, Miss Winthrop arriving persuaded her old friend to join her in saying farewell to her guests.
So just for a few moments, as all their friends were walking about in the great garden, Ruth and Jack were once more left alone. Not far off they could see Jim Colter slowly approaching them with Jean and Frieda holding on to his hands like little girls.
Jack looked first at Jim and then turned to the older girl at her side.
“I am so sorry, Ruth,” she said, “perhaps I was foolish, but I used to hope in those long empty days at the hospital that when you and Jim saw each other again you would forget what has separated you and only remember you care for one another. Somehow when one has been very ill, love seems the only thing that is really important.”
Ruth flushed until she looked like the old Ruth of those last weeks at the ranch before Jim had made the tragic confession of his past fault to her. “Jim does not care for me any more, Jack dear,” she whispered, although no one was near enough to hear. “He has not spoken to me alone since he arrived in New York, so I suppose he has not forgiven my hardness and narrowness; besides, men forget love very easily.”
Jack shook her head and somehow her expression was happier than it had been the moment before Ruth’s speech. “Jim does not forget,” she answered, “he is the faithfulest, tenderest, kindest person in the world.” And then the oldest ranch girl sighed. “Dear me, isn’t it the horridest thing in the world to have to wait for the nice things to happen?” she asked. “Of course, we all know, Ruth, that some day everything will turn out for the best, but it is just that silly old indefinite word some that makes the waiting so difficult.”
The next volume to be issued in the Ranch Girls’ Series will appear under the title of “The Ranch Girls in Europe.” In this story the histories of the four girls and their chaperon will be more fully developed, for having put childhood and school life behind them, they will enter that broader world of young womanhood, where romance stands ever waiting round the corner.