“I said it was a prospecting trip.  Agatha had gone to find some silver ore; and Miss Southern gave me a look that made me mad.  It hinted that she thought my statement much too thin!  Then she remarked that the managers felt that their teachers must concentrate on their work and divided interests made for slackness.  In short, as Agatha had not come back, they had got somebody else to take her post.

“That was a knock, but I said I supposed they’d give her a first-rate testimonial if she applied for another job.

“She looked as if she didn’t want to hurt me, but admitted that they would be willing to state that Agatha had ability and taught science well.  Then she stopped and I asked if she could go no farther.  Ability wasn’t all a teacher needed.

“She said she must agree, and hinted that she had expected much from Agatha, but felt badly disappointed now.  She remarked that managers made searching inquiries when they engaged a teacher for young girls and thought I could understand that she felt responsible—­

“Well, I’d had enough.  I said my sister was fit for a better job than the best they’d got and wouldn’t bother them for a recommendation.  Then I left; thought I’d better quit before I let myself go.”  George paused and wiped his hot face.  “You see how I was fixed?  I could have bluffed a man into making a plain statement and then have knocked him out; but that cool, polite lady made me hate my helplessness.”

“You were at a disadvantage,” Mrs. Farnam agreed with a smile that was half amused and half sympathetic.  “But I wonder who told her!  Do you think that fellow Stormont—­”

“I’m going to find out,” George said grimly.  “In the meantime, it’s not important.  I reckon you understand what this thing implies?  If these people won’t support Agatha’s application, she can’t get another post.  She’d have made her mark teaching, but now all that’s gone; she’s turned down, and I’m responsible!”

“You are not to blame.  I wonder whether she really knew the risk?”

“She knew she’d lose her job, but it wouldn’t stop her; Agatha’s like that!  Anyhow, I am to blame,” George rejoined.  “I’m the head of the family and ought to have made her cut out the blamed foolish notion.  I knew what the lode meant to my mother and how she hated to hear the old man talk about it.  It took him—­and now it’s got my sister—­”

He stopped, struggling with emotion, and Mrs. Farnam said: 

“Perhaps I ought to have given Agatha a plainer hint; but, except for school managers, we’re not very conventional people in this country.  Then I liked her pluck.  It’s weak to give way to the prejudices of censorious folks.  Besides, in a sense, she really wasn’t rash.”

“That’s not the trouble,” George replied with heat.  “I know my sister; so do you!  But she’s got to start business since she can’t teach school, and I hate to think of her clerking in a store.  She has talent and ambition.”