PREPARATION
The next few weeks were curious, puzzling weeks in Jeanette Colter's
life experience. Against her stepmother she felt no less prejudice,
nevertheless circumstances compelling them to spend a good deal of time
together, freely Jeanette accepted such aid as she was able to receive.
After John Marshall's disclosure of the original plan, Mr. Colter was
invited to become a member of the committee who were to have charge of
the preparations for an open-air field day.
About twelve miles from the Rainbow Ranch was a large country club
where outdoor entertainments took place. In one sense the club was
not private, since the invitations were general; however, no one was
admitted except by invitation and the prizes in the various contests
were offered by the club.
Essentially Wyoming is an outdoor state. What might be regarded as an
unusual form of entertainment in other parts of the country was here a
part of the routine.
On the open-air field days there were always exhibitions of riding,
throwing the lasso, mounting a bucking pony, every outdoor sport of a
Western character.
Nor was it uncommon for women and girls to take part in the contests.
At first reluctant to have his wife and daughter participate, soon
after Mr. Colter found himself deeply interested, not alone in the
success of the entertainment, but in Jack and Jeanette's share in it.
On the day she received her father's consent to do as she wished,
Jeanette would have preferred to be allowed to change her mind. But
this she had not the courage to announce.
Perhaps originally she had enjoyed the thought of a certain amount of
family opposition, since at present she was in a state of antagonism
toward everything and everybody. Perhaps she believed that her youth
finally would prove an impossible barrier. This was without counting on
her father's influence or John Marshall's pleas in her behalf, as he
too was a member of the Committee on Arrangements.
Lina brought both of these suggestions to her attention.
On the afternoon of the tea, long after the guests had departed, she
and Jeanette sat in the window-seat in Jeanette's bedroom looking out
over the moonlit fields, engaged in an ardent discussion.
"You are more changed, Jeanette, in a few weeks than I imagined it
possible any human being could be," Lina protested. "Personally I
see no sufficient reason for such a change. Not that I pretend to be
pleased at father's marrying again, but I must say no one could be more
agreeable than our new mother."
Jeanette stared mockingly toward her sister.
"Mother! I thought we had agreed not to use the title 'mother' to any
one save our own mother!"
Lina frowned.
"I know, yet it is extremely uncomfortable to live with any human being
and call her by no name of any kind. Father suggests that we say Jack,
but that does not sound respectful. We have talked the situation over
and I must say there is no reason why a stepmother so young as ours
should desire to be made to appear old by half-grown daughters. So far
we have not decided on any other name. If you can think of a better
title, we shall all be glad, father and the girls as well.
"Jeanette, this is not what I was intending to talk about. I believe
you want to take part in the riding contest in order to prove that
Jeanette Colter is as skillful a horsewoman as Mrs. Colter. And in my
life I never knew anything more ridiculous! As father said, suppose
you do ride better than I or the girls in the neighborhood, you have
no right even to dream of yourself as a successful rival of our
stepmother's. I don't like the name, but you seem to wish me to employ
it."
Previously having screwed up her bright, short chestnut hair into a
tight little knot, Jeanette now puckered her brows and lips.
"You are a goose, Lina! Why talk as if the riding contest for women
and girls would lie between the new Mrs. Colter and me? You and father
are mistaken. There are other riders in the neighborhood more skillful
than either of us. I simply want to be allowed to see what I can do.
However, I may be ruled out as being too young." Jeanette yawned. "If
this occurs I shall not care particularly; everybody at home has made
such a fuss."
A few days after when Jeanette discovered that all opposition to her
riding had been removed, of her own free will she did not see how it
was possible to back down. For one thing she could never endure the
teasing that would ensue, particularly from Cecil Perry.
Then began Jeanette's unusual relation with her stepmother. Two or
three hours of each day they spent together in training for the contest
without becoming better friends.
Occasionally Mr. Colter rode beside them or watched from some vantage
point to offer suggestions, but more often they were alone.
Jeanette appreciated there was a good deal she might learn from her
stepmother. Not only had she been famous throughout the state during
her girlhood as one of the best horsewomen in Wyoming, she also had the
advantage of an English training.
Notwithstanding, she always insisted that she preferred to any other
the Western horse and saddle and the Western fashion of riding.
Little points Jeanette watched carefully, knowing the prize would be
awarded for a number of reasons, but chiefly for speed and daring.
At first she had no hope of actually winning. Now as the days went by
she found herself becoming more and more eager and hopeful.
She was improving, and often there were minor incidents in a race that
affected the final result.
In the women's contest they were to ride across an open field, leap
ditches and fences such as are found in the Western country, turn and
come back to the judges' stand.
Being a natural horsewoman, Jeanette had made no serious effort to
learn to ride properly until the present.
Now she accepted and tested every suggestion offered by her stepmother.
Unselfishly Jack was delighted with Jeanette's progress.
The question of winning or losing made no difference to her. She
should, however, have appreciated that Jeanette was young and that
success appeared as a very different thing to her.
In fact, Jeanette herself was surprised by the increasing intensity of
her desire.
She also had outside spurs to her ambition.
Upon his almost daily visits to the Rainbow Ranch Cecil Perry never
failed to appear amused by Jeanette's efforts.
Never had he been able to forgive her attitude toward him, nor had he
the magnanimity not to wish to be revenged.
After Jeanette's suggestion a club had been formed of the girls and
boys in the neighborhood which they had named "The Silver Arrow."
Recalling Jeanette's sharp speech to him on the afternoon of the tea,
at first Cecil had declined to join. Yielding to Lina's protests
that he must not behave so childishly, he at last became a member of
"The Club of the Silver Arrow," though this did not mean that he had
forgiven Jeanette.
One morning just before lunch he was seated on the veranda with the
other Rainbow Ranch Girls when Jeanette and Jack came riding toward the
house to dismount.
The morning's practice had been unusually unsuccessful for Jeanette.
Her pony had refused to jump one of the ditches on the place and
she had been unable to force him. She had seen her stepmother skim
gracefully across without the least effort and then return to find out
why she had not followed. Jeanette was tired and discouraged and cross
and warm.
Cecil and her sisters looked as if they had been having a particularly
enjoyable morning. They had been playing tennis, but appeared entirely
unruffled. Grudgingly to herself, as she climbed the porch steps,
Jeanette felt obliged to admit that Cecil was almost good looking if
one chanced to like golden hair and a fair skin and a slender, tall
figure in a youth. It was even apparent that Cecil did seem more manly
than at the beginning of their acquaintance. His skin had tanned, his
hair burned a brighter gold, his expression become less petulant.
"You seemed used up, Jeanette, while Mrs. Colter is as fresh as if she
were just starting for a ride," he began, rising and coming forward and
shaking hands first with his hostess.
"Do you mind my staying to lunch?" he inquired. "Lina has asked me and
I want to awfully."
Then as Jack nodded and went away he added:
"Gee, what a charming woman Mrs. Colter is, and what a beauty! At least
she is the type of woman I admire. She is gracious and sweet-tempered
and clever. I say, Jeanette, why don't you try to model yourself after
her? You would be a lot more attractive."
When Jeanette flushed but made no answer, he continued:
"Take a piece of friendly advice, Jeanette. Give up this idea of the
riding contest. I suppose you ride pretty well for a girl, but you
will never be in it with Mrs. Colter. Perhaps you expect to be awarded
the silver arrow for your courage in making the attempt?"
Jeanette shrugged her shoulders.
"Really, Cecil, I wonder if you realize what a talker you are. You talk
more than any girl I ever have known. I suppose that is one of the
reasons why I think you are rather effeminate. Forgive me if I go on
upstairs at once, as I want to change my riding-habit before lunch."
At the door she paused, turned and faced her sisters and their visitor.
"You may dismiss from your mind any idea, Cecil, that I shall give up
riding now that I have determined to make the effort. Of course I have
no possible thought of winning."
With this Jeanette disappeared.
Afterwards Cecil's teasing speech remained in her memory.
"Was it utterly out of the question that she should win? What a triumph
over Cecil Perry if it only were possible."
By night and by day her dreams were tinged with this thought. There
was no one to whom she would speak openly of her desire, but the mere
suggestion that her stepmother might be successful when she failed
increased Jeanette's sense of a carefully repressed dislike.
Unconsciously she was facing a great test of character. Was success of
more importance than anything else in life?