Both McWilliams and his mistress had guessed right in their surmise as to Nora Darling’s popularity in the cow country. She made an immediate and pronounced hit. It was astonishing how many errands the men found to take them to “the house,” as they called the building where the mistress of the ranch dwelt. Bannister served for a time as an excellent excuse. Judging from the number of the inquiries which the men found it necessary to make as to his progress, Helen would have guessed him exceedingly popular with her riders. Having a sense of humor, she mentioned this to McWilliams one day.
He laughed, and tried to turn it into a compliment to his mistress. But she would have none of it.
“I know better, sir. They don’t come here to see me. Nora is the attraction, and I have sense enough to know it. My nose is quite out of joint,” she laughed.
Mac looked with gay earnestness at the feature she had mentioned. “There’s a heap of difference in noses,” he murmured, apparently apropos of nothing.
“That’s another way of telling me that Nora’s pug is the sweetest thing you ever saw,” she charged.
“I ain’t half such a bad actor as some of the boys,” he deprecated.
“Meaning in what way?”
“The Nora Darling way.”
He pronounced her name so much as if it were a caress that his mistress laughed, and he joined in it.
“It’s your fickleness that is breaking my heart, though I knew I was lost as soon as I saw your beatific look on the day you got back with Nora. The first week I came none of you could do enough for me. Now it’s all Nora, darling.” She mimicked gayly his intonation.