Next day Joan watched for an opportunity to tell Jim Cleve that he might come to her little window any time after dark to talk and plan with her. No chance presented itself. Joan wore the dress she had made, to the evident pleasure of Bate Wood and Pearce. They had conceived as strong an interest in her fortunes as she had in Kells's. Wood nodded his approval and Pearce said she was a lady once more. Strange it was to Joan that this villain Pearce, whom she could not have dared trust, grew open in his insinuating hints of Kells's blackguardism. Strange because Pearce was absolutely sincere!
When Jim Cleve did see Joan in her dress the first time he appeared so glad and relieved and grateful that she feared he might betray himself, so she got out of his sight.
Not long after that Kells called her from her room. He wore his somber and thoughtful cast of countenance. Red Pearce and Jesse Smith were standing at attention. Cleve was sitting on the threshold of the door and Wood leaned against the wall.
“Is there anything in the pack of stuff I bought you that you could use for a veil?” asked Kells of Joan.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Get it,” he ordered. “And your hat, too.”
Joan went to her room and returned with the designated articles, the hat being that which she had worn when she left Hoadley.
“That'll do. Put it on—over your face—and let's see how you look.”
Joan complied with this request, all the time wondering what Kells meant.
“I want it to disguise you, but not to hide your youth—your good looks,” he said, and he arranged it differently about her face. “There!... You'd sure make any man curious to see you now.... Put on the hat.”