If was Jerrie who led Frank from the room to his own, where she left him by himself, knowing it would be better so, and it was Arthur who took Dolly out, for Tom had disappeared, and no one saw him again until the next day, when he came down to breakfast, with a worn, haggard look upon his face, which told that he did care, though his mother thought he did not, and taunted him with his indifference.  Poor Tom!  He had gone directly to his room and locked the door, and smoked and smoked, and thought and thought, and then, when it was dark, he had stolen out into the park as far as the four pines, and smoked, and looked up at the stars and wondered if Maude were there with Jack, sitting on the golden seat by the river.  Then going back to the house where no one saw him, he went into the silent room where Maude was lying, and looked long and earnestly upon her white, still face, and wondered in a vague kind of way if she knew he was there, and why he had never thought before what a nice kind of girl she was, and why he had not made more of her as her brother.

‘Maude,’ he whispered, with a lump in his throat, ’if you can hear me, I’d like to tell you I am sorry that I was ever mean to you, and I guess I did like you more than I supposed.’

Then he kissed her pale forehead and went to his room, where he smoked the night through, and in the morning felt as if he had lived a hundred years since the previous night, and wondered how he should get through the day.  It occurred to him that it might be the proper thing to see his mother; and after his breakfast he went to her room, and was received by her with a burst of tears and reproaches for his indifference and lack of feeling in keeping himself away from everybody, as if it were nothing to him that Maude was dead, or that there was nothing for him to do.

‘Thunderation, mother!’ Tom exclaimed, ’would you have me yell and scream, and make a fool of myself?  I sat up all night long, which was more than you did, and I’ve been meditating in the woods, and have seen Maude and made it square with her.  What more can I do?’

‘You can see to things,’ Mrs. Tracy replied.  ’Your father is all broken up and has gone to bed, and it is not becoming in me to be around.  Somebody must take the helm.’

‘And somebody has,’ Tom answered her.  ’Uncle Arthur is master of the ceremonies now.  He is running the ranch, and running it well, to.’

And Tom was right, for Arthur had taken the helm, and aided and abetted by Jerrie, was quietly attending to matters and arranging for the funeral, which Dolly said must be in the house, as she would not go to the church, with a gaping crowd to stare at her.  So it was to take place at the house on Friday afternoon, and Arthur ordered a costly coffin from New York, with silver mountings and panels, and almost a car-load of flowers and floral designs, for Jerrie had explained to him Maude’s wishes with regard to her grave, which they lined first with the freshest of the boughs from the four pines, filling these again with flowers up to the very top, so that the grave when finished seemed like one mass of flowers, in which it would not be hard to lie.