“Thank you,” said Charnock; “we’ll take the risk of finding you not at home.  Now perhaps it wouldn’t be much trouble if you told Jasper I’m in difficulties.  You’ll see his place when you cross the ravine near the bluff.”

Helen rode away, but when she saw Jasper’s farm it was a mile off the trail and she had to cross a broken sandy belt.  For all that, she smiled as she made the round.  It was typical of Bob to send her.  He might have tethered his horses and walked the distance, but he had a talent for leaving to somebody else the things he ought to do.

After supper she sat on the veranda, while Festing leaned against the rails.  The house was built of ship-lap boards, with a roof of cedar shingles, and wooden pillars supporting the projecting eaves.  It had been improved and made comfortable with Helen’s money, and with the land about it, registered as belonging to her.  Festing had insisted on this, rather against her will, because she had meant to make it a gift to him.  The wind, as usual at sunset, had dropped, and clear green sky, touched with dull red on the horizon, overhung the plain.  The air was cold and bracing; sound carried far, and the musical chime of cowbells came from a distant bluff.  There were not many cattle in the neighborhood, but the Government was trying to encourage stock-raising and had begun to build creameries.

Helen meditatively studied her husband.  Festing had been plowing since sunrise and looked tired.  Something had gone wrong with his gasoline tractor, and she knew he had spent two or three hours finding out the fault.  This had annoyed him, because time was valuable and he was impatient of delay.  Helen approved his industry and the stubborn perseverance that led to his overcoming many obstacles, but sometimes thought he took things too hard and exaggerated their importance.  Now as he leaned against the balustrade he had the physical grace of a well-trained athlete, but she thought his look was fretful and his mind too much occupied.

“I met Bob by the long bluff as I rode home,” she said.

Festing looked up sharply.  “Well, I suppose you were bound to meet him before long.  What was he doing at the bluff?”

“Waiting for somebody to help him with his wagon,” Helen answered with a laugh.  “A wheel was coming off.”

“That was like Bob.  He has a rooted objection to helping himself when it means an effort.”

“For all that, you were a friend of his.”

“I’m not his friend now.  I’ve done with the fellow.”

“It’s rather awkward,” Helen remarked thoughtfully.  “He asked if he might bring his wife over, and although I wasn’t very gracious, I could not refuse.”

“Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.  As I won’t have a minute until the sowing is finished, I’ll be out when he comes.  If he stayed with his work just now, it would be better for him.”

Helen was silent for a moment.  Stephen was made of much finer stuff than Bob, but he had not the latter’s graceful humor and his curtness jarred.