"Where were you schooled?" he asked her.
He had brought her back and her face stiffened. She gave him a
startled, almost angry look, dug her heels into her horse and broke
into a gallop; nor could he win from her another word.
A few days before he left, he took Yarnall into his confidence. At
first the rancher would do nothing but laugh. "Jane on the boards!
That's a notion!" followed by explosion after explosion of mirth. The
Jew waited, patient, pliant, smiling, and then enumerated his reasons.
He talked to Yarnall for an hour, at the end of which time, Yarnall,
his eyes still twinkling, sent for Jane.
The two men sat in a log-walled room, known as the office. Yarnall's
big desk crowded a stove. There was no other furniture except shelves
and a box seat beneath a window. Jasper sat on the end of the desk,
swinging his slim, well-booted leg; Yarnall, stocky, gray, shabby,
weather-beaten, leaned back in his wicker chair. The door which Jasper
faced was directly behind Yarnall. When Jane opened it, he turned.
The girl looked grim and a little pale. She was evidently frightened.
This summons from Yarnall suggested dismissal or reproof. She came
around to face him and stood there, looking fierce and graceful, her
head lowered, staring gloomily at him from under her brows. To Jasper
she gave not so much as a glance.
"Well, Jane, I fancy I shall have to let you go," said Yarnall. He was
not above tormenting the wild-cat. Female ferocity always excites the
teasing boy in a man. "You're getting too ambitious for us. You see,
once these rich New Yorkers take you up, you're no more use to a plain
ranchman like me."
"What are you drivin' at?" asked Jane.
"Do let me explain it to her, Yarnall!" Jasper snapped his elastic
fingers, color had risen to his face, and he looked annoyed. "Miss
Jane, won't you sit down?"
Jane turned her deep, indignant eyes upon him. "Are you and your wife
the rich New Yorkers he says are takin' me up?"
"No, no. He's joking. This is a serious business. It's of vital
importance to me and it ought to be of vital importance to you. Please
do sit down!"
Jane took a long step back and sat down on the settle under the long,
horizontal window. She folded her hands on her knee and looked up at
Morena. She had transferred her attention completely to him. Yarnall
watched them. He was an Englishman of much experience and this picture
of the skillful, cultivated, handsome Jew angling deftly for the
gaunt, young savage diverted him hugely. He screwed up his eyes to get
a picture of it.