THE TEA PARTY
"Jack, you will try to make yourself as agreeable as possible."
Jacqueline Kent laughed: "Frieda dear, don't I always try? And is it
fair of you to blame me when I am unsuccessful? But I know you want me
to be as staid and well behaved this afternoon as if I were the Dowager
Lady Kent, in order to conquer the reputation I seem already to have
acquired in the neighorhood. Do they think me a kind of wild west show?
Well, I will make my best effort."
The motor in which Olive, Frieda and Jack were driving had by this time
entered the grounds of the summer home of Senator and Mrs. Marshall. The
house was a big frame building with a wide porch filled with attractive
porch furniture and shaded by striped awnings of brown and yellow. The
afternoon was a warm and lovely one and apparently the guests were
preferring to remain out of doors, as several of them were wandering
about in the yard before the house and a number were seated upon the
veranda.
As the motor from the Rainbow ranch stopped, Senator Marshall himself,
accompanied by Peter Stevens, came forward to greet the newcomers. He
spoke cordially of his pleasure in seeing them to Frieda and Olive, but
his attention was attracted by Jacqueline Ralston Kent, whom he had
known as a young girl.
Senator Marshall was a middle-aged man of distinguished appearance, over
six feet tall, with white hair, bright blue eyes and an aquiline nose.
Ordinarily his expression was one of good-humored tolerance. Yet Senator
Marshall had the reputation for being a dangerous enemy and a man of
strong will whom no one dared oppose upon a matter of importance.
Notwithstanding the fact that his wife was feared by her neighbors as a
woman whose authority no one was allowed to dispute, it was said that,
although her husband gave way to her in all small issues, in larger ones
she was compelled to do as he wished.
To-day Jack was wearing an afternoon dress of black tulle over black
silk, and a large black hat, which made her skin appear exceptionally
clear and fair and her hair a deeper gold brown.
"It was kind of you to come to see us the other afternoon, Mrs.
Marshall, and I am sorry to have missed you," Jack said a little shyly a
few moments later, when Senator Marshall had taken her to speak to his
wife, leaving Peter Stevens to follow with Frieda and Olive. It was a
misfortune from which Jacqueline Ralston had suffered as a girl and
which she never had entirely conquered, that she was apt to feel less at
ease with women than with men, as if they understood her less well and
criticized her more severely.
Now as Mrs. Marshall returned her greeting, although perfectly polite
and cordial, Jack had an instinctive impression that the older woman saw
something in her which she did not like, or else had heard something
previously which had prejudiced her.
"I am glad to meet you at last, Mrs. Kent. Considering the fact that you
have been in the neighborhood so short a time I seem already to have
_heard_ a great deal of you."
If there was no double meaning in the words which were simple in
themselves, nevertheless Jack flushed slightly.
"But I am not a stranger in this neighborhood, Mrs. Marshall. I knew
your husband a long time ago when my father was alive and I was a little
girl trying to help manage our ranch. I don't think I forgave you for
many years, Senator Marshall, because you were one of the lawyers on the
other side when we had a difficulty over the boundary line of our
ranch."
"No, you were quite right not to forgive me, but remember you won the
case and I lost, so that should make it easier for you to forgive and
forget. I am sure I shall never have the bad taste or the poor judgment
to take sides against you a second time upon any subject."
Smiling, Jack glanced around her. Seated upon the porch were half a
dozen or more persons whose faces were dimly familiar, some of whom she
had not seen in a number of years, others fairly intimate friends, and a
few complete strangers.
Leading her about the circle, Mrs. Marshall introduced her to the
persons whom she had never met and Jack herself paused to shake hands
and talk to the others.
There was something in her manner which the older woman observed with a
sensation of envy, never having seen anyone before apparently so
sincere and straightforward as Jacqueline Kent.
An hour later Jack found herself at one end of the long veranda
surrounded by a group of half a dozen persons including her host.
"It is growing late, I am afraid we shall soon have to say farewell,"
Jack suggested, looking about to discover Frieda and Olive. She had done
her best to make herself appear as agreeable as possible according to
her sister's direction, but already she was a little tired and anxious
to be back at the ranch, seldom really enjoying conventional society as
she believed she should.
"But you must not think of leaving us, Mrs. Kent, until you have seen my
son," Senator Marshall insisted. "He was forced to go to Laramie this
afternoon upon some business for me, but I promised to keep you until
his return. I suppose you don't realize that the girls in the
neighborhood are already beginning to be a little jealous of you, now
that you have the reputation of being the best horsewoman in the state.
I am glad you are not a young man instead of a young woman, or you might
become Stevens' or my political rival some day. Do I hear correctly
that you mean to resume your American nationality as soon as you can go
through the necessary formalities?"
Jack nodded.
"Yes, Mr. Stevens has been helping me, telling me what I must do. Yet I
think it is not gallant of you, Senator, to suggest a woman has no
chance in politics in Wyoming, the first state in the Union to allow
women the vote."
Senator Marshall leaned back in his chair, eyeing Jack with a smile.
"So you are thinking of playing Lady Nancy Astor in the United States?
Who knows but the idea is a good one. If the British Parliament accepted
an American woman married to a British peer, I don't see why an American
woman married to an Englishman, resuming her former allegiance to her
own country because she loves it best, would not make a first-class
member of Congress, perhaps defeat you, Stevens."
"Why not you, Senator, if Mrs. Kent is elected to office from Wyoming?
For that matter, I do not see why she should not have the highest honor
in the gift of the state."
As the two men were joking with one another, Jack rose and at the same
instant saw a young man of about twenty-one coming hurriedly across the
porch in their direction.
She held out her hand at once, recognizing him as John Marshall, Senator
Marshall's son, although never having met him at any time.
"I am so glad you have not run away, Mrs. Kent, I want to ask you a
great favor. I hear you can beat any ranchman in Wyoming swinging a
lasso. Try it with me some day, won't you? It is great sport, but I've
yet to see a girl outside the circus or a wild west show who is any good
at it."
Absurd under the circumstances, yet Jack blushed furiously and then
laughed:
"Am I never, never to cease to hear of my ridiculous exploit? You see,
Mr. Marshall, I thought I was safe from observation that day, or perhaps
it is more than probable I did not think what I was doing at all. And
since that ten minutes of simply having a good time and trying to find
out if I had forgotten what I learned as a girl, I have heard of little
else. But you are mistaken in thinking I have any great skill with a
lasso. I have forgotten the little skill I once possessed."
"But you will let me see you attempt it again? It is the greatest sport
in the world, beats tennis or baseball, or even polo. The girls in this
part of the country are either afraid or else insist lassoing isn't
ladylike or proper, some funny nonsense! A good many of them say it was
shocking of you and that no well-bred girl would ever have been alone
with a lot of cowboys watching their contest, let alone taking part. But
I----"
"See here, don't you think you have said enough, John?" Senator Marshall
protested.
But Jack only laughed and held out her hand.
"I deserve nearly anything that may be said of me, but I thought I had
come home to live in the west where one did not have to be conventional.
Apologize for me, won't you? Yes, I'll ride with you with pleasure if
you don't mind my bringing Jimmie and several little girls along to act
as our escort. You see, I ordinarily ride with them every afternoon. I
do wish we could try the lassoing, but I am afraid I don't dare."
"Still, you will some day. I've an idea you would dare anything that you
thought the right thing to do," John Marshall added so enthusiastically
and making so little effort to conceal his admiration for Jacqueline
Kent, who was several years his senior, that the group of older people
about them laughed.
A few moments later, thrusting his father and Peter Stevens aside, he
insisted upon seeing Jack to the motor and handed her in with amusing
and most unnecessary gallantry, as she was more than able to look after
herself.
Ten minutes later, leaning back in the car with her eyes closed, Jack
demanded:
"Were you pleased with me this afternoon, Frieda Ralston Russell?
Goodness knows, I am tired enough with the struggle to be agreeable! I
wonder why society wears me out and I can be outdoors and busy all day
without fatigue."
"You got on pretty well, Jack, only I was not with you all of the time
and don't know everything you said. I do hope you said nothing
indiscreet; but I am afraid Senator Marshall and his son liked you
better than Mrs. Marshall did, and that is a pity."
Jack yawned.
"Olive, was there ever so much worldly wisdom possessed by any one
person as by Mrs. Henry Tilford Russell? I am sorry if you think Mrs.
Marshall did not like me, but she cannot be blamed for the fact and
neither can I. As for the son, John Marshall, he is a nice boy, nicer
than his father. I don't know why, but I never altogether trust Senator
Marshall. However, I am talking nonsense; one talks so much nonsense at
a tea party it is hard to stop immediately after. I hope Ralph is safely
at home by this time. I was sorry Jean was not with us. It is so
wonderful for the four Rainbow Ranch girls to be living together at the
old ranch after all these years and all our experiences that I don't
like our being parted except when it is unavoidable."
"Don't talk as if we were patriarchs, Jack, and as if John Marshall were
a small boy and you were old enough to be his mother," Frieda protested.
"You are only a few years older than he is, after all! But it is nice to
be together and I trust Ralph's arrival will cheer Jean up. She has
tried not to show it, but Jean and I always have understood each other
and I have seen lately that she is more worried over something than she
wants anyone to know."
"Well, please give my love to Ralph if he has returned and say I shall
look forward to seeing him in the morning. No, I won't come to the
house. Jimmie and I want to have dinner together and an evening alone,"
Jack answered.
About ten o'clock she was sitting out on the porch of the Rainbow lodge
feasting her eyes on the golden glory of the October moon floating in a
heaven of the deepest blue, when she heard some one walking toward the
house.
Jack was rarely afraid of the conventional things which most women fear,
yet the steps seemed furtive and uncertain, so that she got up hastily.
A moment later the figure of a young fellow appeared wearing the costume
of a cowboy. The moonlight shone full upon his face, yet Jack did not at
once recognize him.
"'Pears as if ye didn't know me, yet I ain't surprised," he drawled. "I
ain't seen you but the once when we rid over to the lassoing from the
ranch house. My name's Billy Preston, come from the Kentucky mountains.
The boys sent me up here to make you a little present. I was going to
leave it on your front porch and sneak away again, expectin' to find you
indoors or mebbe not at home."
"Why a present for me? What is it? No one ever gives me a present any
more, and who is it from?" Jack demanded as eagerly as a little girl.
The young mountaineer thrust something toward her, rather a large bundle
it appeared in the moonlight.
"It's a new lasso, made of the finest horsehair in the market and sent
you by the fellers who saw you ride that time. They say with a little
more practice you'll learn what you set out to do. Anyhow, the fellers
want me to say they are with you in anything you may be thinkin' about
undertakin' out in these here parts. And say, you needn't be afraid, no
matter what happens. We are all your friends; we like a woman who don't
put on side and who kin ride straight and think straight and act
straight. You know, I was brought up in the Kentucky mountains, and
besides I fit two years in France. So I kin shoot, as we used to say
down south, I kin shoot a fly off a telegraph pole, so if ever you
should need any one to look after you, why, count on me."
"Good gracious, thank you and thank everybody!" Jack murmured. "I am
delighted to own the new lasso, although I'm afraid I shall never learn
to use it properly. But if the Rainbow ranchmen wish me to know they
are glad I am at home again, I don't know how to thank them enough.
Please say I love every inch of this old ranch in the greatest country
in the world. But I'm not thinking of any special undertaking except to
live here and help a little with the care of the ranch as I once did as
a girl. Just the same, I am deeply grateful for the honor you have paid
me and the protection I feel sure every one of you would offer me if I
should ever need it. I don't know what I should say to express my
gratitude, but you'll see that the men understand."
Billy Preston nodded.
"Don't you worry, Miss--Mam," he added quickly. Yet he must be forgiven
his mistake for Jack looked so like a young girl standing there on the
old porch in her soft black dress in the yellow radiance of the moon.
"I'll see they know you're pleased, but you ain't to disremember the
rest of what I said. One ain't ever able to guess how things may turn
out in this world or what troubles folks may git into."