“That seems unlikely,” Helen remarked.  “I imagine that as you have beaten him he’ll be glad to let the matter drop.  No doubt he wanted the money and was vexed because he had to give it up, but I hardly think he’ll try to revenge himself on you.  Men don’t do these things.”

“My husband and yours don’t, but Wilkinson is different,” Sadie answered.

Charnock had not returned when she reached the farm, and after Helen left she sat on the veranda, feeling disturbed.  Bob had told her he was going to the railroad to bring out some goods, but he could have got back two or three hours earlier.  Then Wilkinson no doubt knew where he had gone.  A small settlement, with two new hotels, had sprung up round the station, and as the place was easily reached by the construction gangs there was now and then some drunkenness and gambling.  For all that, Sadie did not mean to anticipate trouble, and set about some household work that her drive had delayed.  It got dark before she finished, but Bob did not come, and she went outside again.

The night was clear and refreshingly cold after the scorching day.  The wind had dropped, everything was very quiet, and she could see for some distance across the plain.  The hollows were picked out by belts of darker shadow, and the scattered bluffs made dim gray blurs, but nothing moved on the waste, and she did not hear the beat of hoofs she listened for.

For a time she sat still, lost in gloomy thought.  Bob’s relapse had been a bitter disappointment, because she had begun to hope that the danger of his resuming his former habits was past.  He had stuck to his work, which seemed to absorb his interest, and had looked content.  There was ground for believing that with a little judicious encouragement he might make a good farmer, and Sadie did not grudge the patient effort necessary to keep him in the proper path.  Now he had left it again and might wander far before she could lead him back.

For all that, she did not mean to give up.  She had fought hard for Bob and was resolved to win, while there was a ray of comfort.  The woman she had at first thought a danger was her best friend, and she felt for Helen Festing a grateful admiration that sometimes moved her deeply.  Helen had many advantages that she could not have combated had they been used against her:  grace, polish, and a knowledge of the world in which Bob had lived.  But Helen was on her side.  Sadie’s admiration was perhaps warranted, but she undervalued her own patience and courage.

At length she got drowsy and forgot her troubles.  She did not think she really went to sleep, but after a time she got up with a start.  A beat of hoofs and rattle of wheels had roused her, and she saw a rig coming towards the house.  For a minute or two she stood shivering and trying to brace herself.  If Bob was driving, things might be better than she thought; but when the horses stopped another man got down.