The girls seemed overwhelmed with such unexpected good fortune. They acted as if they had suddenly been struck dumb. Miss North and Blue Bonnet took turns breaking the silence with trivial generalities. To Alec it seemed as if the meal would never end. He answered the questions put to him mechanically, owing to his extreme embarrassment; but he found courage toward the end of the meal to cast a sly glance in Annabel's direction--a glance not unobserved by Annabel. Out in the hall, away from Miss North's watchful eye, he said to Blue Bonnet: "If you ever get me into a deal like that again, you'll know it! It was worse than busting my first broncho." And, although it was January, and the thermometer registering freezing weather, he took out his pocket handkerchief and mopped the perspiration from his neck and brow. He made his adieux to Miss North very charmingly, however, thanking her for her hospitality; and Blue Bonnet left him at the reception-room door, conscious that broncho busting, and other things incident to ranch life, had not made any serious inroads on his native good breeding. CHAPTER IX WOODFORD "Now, Carita, tell me all of it--everything you heard. Come on, I think I ought to know." Blue Bonnet and Carita had been interrupted in the packing of their suitcases for a week-end at Woodford, by Annabel Jackson, who had stepped in Blue Bonnet's room to return a dress. Her presence had caused Carita to let slip a bit of gossip prevalent in the school. Carita squeezed a waist into the last bit of space her suitcase afforded, and turned to Blue Bonnet. "Oh, what do you ask me for, Blue Bonnet? I don't like to tell you--really I don't! What's the use? Oh, dear, I wish I hadn't dropped that hint. I didn't mean to--it just slipped out." "Go on. Tell me." Carita sighed deeply. "It's just gossip. Like enough there isn't a word of truth in it." "Never mind. Tell me." "All right, then: Mary Boyd says that Annabel Jackson is a perfect little toady--that she always finds out if a girl has money and nice clothes and things, before she has anything to do with her. She says Annabel has found out that you have a great deal of money, and that's one reason she's so nice to you." "But I haven't a great deal of money--not to spend here, anyway. I haven't any bigger allowance than Annabel has--or Sue, for that matter!" "Yes, but it's got out about your ranch; that you have a lot coming to you some day--and--and that you brought me here--that you're paying my way--" Blue Bonnet turned sharply. "Who told that? That's my business and Uncle Cliff's--entirely!" "You said something about being responsible for me when I was sick. I reckon the girls put two and two together and started the story. I can't think how else it got out." Blue Bonnet put her arms round Carita and gave her a swift hug. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Carita. It must make you feel--horrid!"