Ford stayed long enough to finish drinking his tea, and then he left the house with what he privately considered a perfectly casual manner.  As a matter of fact, he was extremely self-conscious about it, so that Mrs. Kate felt justified in mentioning it, and in asking Josephine a question or two—­when she had prudently made an errand elsewhere for Buddy.

Josephine, having promptly disclaimed all knowledge or interest pertaining to the affair, Mrs. Kate spoke her mind plainly.

“If Ford’s going to fall in love with you, Phenie,” she said, “I think you’re foolish to encourage Dick.  I believe Ford is falling in love with you.  I never thought he even liked you till to-night, but what Buddy said about that ribbon—­”

“I don’t suppose Bud knows what he’s talking about—­any more than you do,” snapped Josephine.  “If you’re determined that I shall have a love affair on this ranch, I’m going home.”  She planted her chin in her two palms, just as she had done at dinner, and stared into vacancy.

“Where?” asked Mrs. Kate pointedly, and then atoned for it whole-heartedly.  “There, I didn’t mean that—­only—­this is your home.  It’s got to be; I won’t let it be anywhere else.  And you needn’t have any love affair, Phene—­you know that.  Only you shan’t hurt Ford.  I think he’s perfectly splendid!  What he did for Chester—­I—­I can’t think of that without getting a lump in my throat, Phene.  Think of it!  Going without food himself, because there wasn’t enough for two, and—­and—­well, he just simply threw away his own chance of getting through, to give Chester a better one.  It was the bravest thing I ever heard of!  And the way he has conquered—?”

“How do you know he has conquered?  Rumor says he hasn’t.  And lots of men save other men’s lives; it’s being done every day, and no one hears much about it.  You think it was something extraordinary, just because it happened to be Chester that was saved.  Anybody will do all he can for a sick partner, when they’re away out in the wilds.  I haven’t a doubt Dick would have done the very same thing, when it comes to that.”  Josephine got up from the table then, and went haughtily into her own room.

Mrs. Kate retired quite as haughtily into the kitchen, and there was a distinct coolness between them for the rest of the day, and a part of the next.  The chill of it affected Ford sufficiently to keep him away from the house as much as possible, and unusually silent and unlike himself when he was with the men.

But, unlike many another, he did not know that his recurrent dissatisfaction with life was directly traceable to the apparent intimacy between Josephine and Dick.  Ford, if he had tried to put his gloomy unrest into words, would have transposed his trouble and would have mistaken effect for cause.  In other words, he would have ignored Josephine and Dick entirely, and would have said that he wanted whisky—­and wanted it as the damned are said to want water.