The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure Part 7

It was through Jack's suggestion that the arrangement was altered.

"Please don't tell Mrs. Naxie, Bryan, that I spoke of it," she volunteered as soon as she beheld the preparations, "but don't you think the summer in England too short for people to spend an hour indoors when they can avoid it?"

And Captain MacDonnell good naturedly agreed.

As a matter of fact, Jack always poured tea for him when he had guests and she was able to be present, so she felt sufficiently at home to make her request.

Captain MacDonnell's mother was an Irishwoman and his father a Scotchman. But they had both died when he was a little boy and he had spent the greater part of his boyhood with an old bachelor friend of his father's, who was his own guardian and had lived in the very house of which he was now the master.

As neighbors he and Frank Kent had played together when they were small boys and had later gone to the same public school. Then Frank's illness sent him to the United States, where he was introduced into the lives of the Ranch girls, at about the same time his friend Bryan MacDonnell entered Cambridge and afterwards the army. But whenever he and Frank were together the old intimacy had continued, and Jack's coming had only seemed to turn their friendship into a three-cornered one.

"Frank told me to tell you that he was sorry not to be able to come over with us this afternoon, Bryan," Jack announced a few moments later, when the four of them had gone out to select a place where tea could be served, "But for some reason or other he telephoned that he could not come down from London today. I don't know what is wrong with Frank lately. He has never been so absorbed in political matters. I am afraid Frieda and Olive will think he neglects his family disgracefully. Please tell them, Bryan, that he is sometimes an attentive husband."

But as Captain MacDonnell did not answer at once, Olive remarked in a more serious tone than Lady Kent had used:

"I think I am rather glad Frank takes his work as a member of Parliament as the most important thing he has to do. After all, helping to make the laws of one's country is a pretty serious occupation. Which do you think more serious--Captain MacDonnell, being a soldier and fighting when it is necessary to defend the laws, or making them in the beginning?"

Captain MacDonnell smiled, but rather seriously. It occurred to Jack, who knew him so much better than the others, that Bryan did seem uncommonly grave this afternoon, in spite of his efforts to be an agreeable host.

Then she took hold of Frieda's arm and they wandered off a short distance, leaving Olive and Captain MacDonnell to continue their conversation alone.

"Do you know, Frieda," Jack whispered when they were safe from being overheard, "I would give a great deal if Bryan and Olive would learn to care for each other. Ordinarily I think it is horrid to be a matchmaker, but Bryan and Olive are both so lovely and you don't know what it would mean to me to have Olive live near me. It is heavenly these days, having you both here. You can't realize how lonely I get for you and my own country sometimes."

Frieda looked critically over at Captain MacDonnell and Olive, who were standing close beside each other talking earnestly. In spite of Captain MacDonnell's ancestry his coloring was almost as dark as Olive's.

Then Frieda turned her blue eyes on her sister.

"Captain MacDonnell and Olive look too much alike," she argued. "I prefer marriages where the man and woman are contrasts."

Then, although Lady Kent made no answer, she smiled to herself. If Frieda believed in contrasts in marriage, surely she did not mean merely in complexion and general appearance. Important contrasts in human beings went much deeper than appearances. Surely Frieda's own marriage had offered a sufficient contrast in years, taste, disposition and a dozen other things. However, instead of securing happiness, it seemed to have had the opposite result.

During the remainder of the afternoon Jack thought nothing more about their early conversation, as she devoted herself entirely to Captain MacDonnell's other guests.

It was just a little after six o'clock, when they were beginning to think of returning home, that Lady Kent observed one of her servants coming toward her across the lawn carrying a telegram.

Never so long as she lived was Jack ever to forget that moment and the scene about her. There were about a dozen, beautifully costumed persons present--the women in silks and muslins, and the men in tennis flannels and other sport costumes. They were all talking in a light hearted fashion about small matters.

Without any thought that it might be of particular importance Jack opened her telegram and before reading it apologized to the persons nearest her. It happened that Captain MacDonnell was not far away.

Yet she read her telegram--not once, but several times--before it dawned upon her what her husband's words meant. Even then she did not really understand any more than the millions of other women in the world, who heard the same news and more within the next few days. The sky overhead was still blue; the earth was green and peaceful, and her companions were unconscious of tragedy.

Nevertheless Frank's telegram had stated that the beginning of the war cloud had appeared over Europe--the cloud which was later to spread over so large a part of the world.

CHAPTER VII

SO AS BY FIRE

"BUT Henry cannot go; it is absurd! He never shot a gun in his life and besides I--" Frieda hesitated; her face flushing; yet she was trying to speak calmly.

She and Olive and Jack and Frank Kent were in the library at Kent House with Captain MacDonnell talking one morning, several weeks since the afternoon tea and during, perhaps, the most momentous week in all history.

"I think you must be mistaken about your husband's being unable to shoot, Frieda," Lord Kent answered dryly. "As a matter of fact I believe he is an expert; he told me himself that he had taken prizes for marksmanship when he was a boy, but had never cared to use his skill for hunting. As for your saying he can't go; well, the truth is, Frieda, Professor Russell has already gone. He came in to see me a few days ago to say that he had volunteered and was about to be sent somewhere in France."

Frank had not intended to be unkind. So many things had happened and were happening every crowded second of the time that he was simply forgetting to think of the individual. However, under the circ.u.mstances, he did not suppose that Frieda would care very much what became of her husband.

"You mean that Henry has joined the army--that he has crossed over to France without asking me how I would feel--without even coming to say good-bye," Frieda returned slowly. And suddenly even her brother-in-law observed the change in her expression. It was strange to see Frieda with her face paling; her full, red lips closed tight and her blue eyes dark and strained.

"But, my dear child, how could your husband come to say good-bye to you when you have been steadfastly refusing to see him for weeks?" Frank continued, still a little impatient over feminine unreasonableness. "He told me to tell you his plans and that he had made all arrangements in case--"

But, that instant, catching a warning glance from his wife, Lord Kent changed color over his own tactlessness and desisted. This was a time when everybody's nerves were overstrained; when hearts were torn to pieces and imaginations were picturing only horrors.

"Won't you motor down to the station with me, please, Jack?" Lord Kent added, hastily, anxious to get away as soon as possible from the situation he had created.

Jack slipped on a long tan coat and soft hat and went with her husband, leaving Olive to look after Frieda.

"Bryan is expecting to be here again this afternoon for a farewell visit, dear. He has been delayed for some reason or other but hopes to leave with his regiment tomorrow," Frank announced on the way to his train. "Do you know I think Bryan is a lucky fellow these days, not to have anyone very close to him--anyone who cares very much what becomes of him. Oh, of course, I should care, more than I like to think; but I mean no mother or father--no family."

"I should also care a great deal, Frank," Jack interrupted quietly.

But Lord Kent went on, scarcely hearing her.

"It is a funny thing that Bryan has never married. He is an uncommonly fascinating fellow. Of course, he hasn't much money; but that ought not to stand in his way. He has his profession. Queer, when he was a boy he used to talk about being an artist; but there is a lot of difference between an artist and a soldier. He must be glad now of his choice.

Sometimes I think Bryan has never married because he has never seen any woman as attractive as you are. He has almost said as much to me."

Jack shook her head almost angrily. "That is nonsense, Frank. After all, you know Bryan is pretty young; there is no use talking as if he were a confirmed old bachelor."

After lunch that same afternoon Captain MacDonnell rode over to Kent House. He was wearing his service uniform of khaki--the short military coat, the full trousers drawn close at the knees and the high boots. He also wore the British officer's cap with the small visor and the other marks of his rank.

Hearing the sound of his horse approaching, Jack went out on the veranda to greet him. Frieda was upstairs in her room and Olive was writing letters to Ruth Colter and Jean at the Rainbow Ranch.

In her arms Jack carried her baby, with whom she had been playing.

Indeed, ever since the news of war, some member of the family had seemed to wish to hold Vive, for her baby softness and sweetness was in some way a consolation.

Jack had her baby's little yellow head pressed close against her bronze colored hair and made the baby wave its hand to the young officer as he drew nearer.

When he came up to them on the veranda he kissed Vive's tiny hand.

"May I have one of Vive's blue ribbons to tie in my b.u.t.tonhole, please, Lady Jacqueline?" he asked. "Lady Jacqueline" being a t.i.tle which Captain MacDonnell had originated for Jack, but which many other people also used. "Every knight, when he went off to the wars in the old days, wore his lady's colors. I should like to have Vive for my lady."

Jack felt her fingers trembling a little as she unfastened the ribbon from her baby's sleeve and gave it to her friend.

"Won't you take a farewell ride with me this afternoon, Jack?" Captain MacDonnell asked the next instant. "It will be the best way to manage our good-bye."

For just the fraction of a second Jack hesitated. Yet, in that time, she had a sufficient opportunity to think over the entire situation.

Captain MacDonnell had not asked her to ride with him since the afternoon, when her recklessness had displeased Frank. Since then she had never attempted to persuade Frank that his demand, that she never ride with Captain MacDonnell again, was unreasonable. Nevertheless, she felt fairly sure that under the present circ.u.mstance he could not object. Surely, Frank could not be so ungracious as to be vexed with her for disobeying his wish at such a time. She would, of course, ride carefully and take no foolish risks.