Kate sat very still, holding this letter in her hand, when John
Jardine came up and sat beside her. She looked at him closely.
He was quite as good looking as his mother thought him, in a
brawny masculine way; but Kate was not seeking the last word in
mental or physical refinement. She was rather brawny herself, and
perfectly aware of the fact. She wanted intensely to learn all
she could, she disliked the idea that any woman should have more
stored in her head than she, but she had no time to study minute
social graces and customs. She wanted to be kind, to be polite,
but she told Mrs. Jardine flatly the "she didn't give a flip about
being overly nice," which was the exact truth. That required
subtleties beyond Kate's depth, for she was at times alarmingly
casual. So she held her letter and thought about John Jardine.
As she thought, she decided that she did not know whether she was
in love with him or not; she thought she was. She liked being
with him, she liked all he did for her, she would miss him if he
went away, she would be proud to be his wife, but she did wish
that he were interested in land, instead of inventions and stocks
and bonds. Stocks and bonds were almost as evanescent as rainbows
to Kate. Land was something she could understand and handle.
Maybe she could interest him in land; if she could, that would be
ideal. What a place his wealth would buy and fit up. She
wondered as she studied John Jardine, what was in his head; if he
truly intended to ask her to be his wife, and since reading Nancy
Ellen's letter, when? She should let the Trustee know if she were
not going to teach the school again; but someway, she rather
wanted to teach the school. When she started anything she did not
know how to stop until she finished. She had so much she wanted
to teach her pupils the coming winter.
Suddenly John asked: "Kate, if you could have anything you
wanted, what would you have?"
"Two hundred acres of land," she said.
"How easy!" laughed John, rising to find a seat for his mother who
was approaching them. "What do you think of that, Mother? A girl
who wants two hundred acres of land more than anything else in the
world."
"What is better?" asked Mrs. Jardine.
"I never heard you say anything about land before."
"Certainly not," said his mother, "and I'm not saying anything
about it now, for myself; but I can see why it means so much to
Kate, why it's her natural element."
"Well, I can't," he said. "I meet many men in business who
started on land, and most of them were mighty glad to get away
from it. What's the attraction?"