"It's much easier to keep the hair out of my face when it's slicked
back. Besides, there isn't any dress-maker in Oak Creek better'n my
mother. But she doesn't have much time to trim dresses. When I go to
Denver, I'll have as fine a wardrobe as yours."
"If your father has any money why doesn't he buy an automobile instead
of using that awful ranch-wagon? And why doesn't he hire servants to do
the work your mother now does? She could sew on your clothes, if she
had more time."
"Mother never liked to have me think much of dress and I have always
been so busy with my pets and trips on the mountains, that I generally
lived in my riding clothes during vacations. But my shoes are as good
as yours--you said so. And my teeth and hands and feet are as carefully
taken care of as yours or any one's!"
Eleanor admitted that this was so, but Polly still had to prove that
her father had money. And she insisted upon the fact being proven.
"If you don't believe me, you can write to my brother John," declared
Polly. "His best college friend visited here last vacation-time and
simply went crazy over Rainbow Cliffs. He went so far as to have an
expert mineralogist come over here to examine the stones. This man was
out west on business for Tom Latimer's father, and Tom said it would
cost next to nothing to send for him. The man said the jewels would
create the greatest wild-cat speculations in New York if they were
placed on the market. Those were his very words!"
"Tom Latimer! Do you know him?" gasped Eleanor.
"He's John's chum. He visited here for several weeks and we had the
loveliest times! I liked him a lot."
"I should think you would! But, Polly, Tom is several years older than
you. In fact he is older than Bob, as she found out when she tried to
capture him for herself. His father is one of the richest financiers in
New York."
"I didn't think of his age, although now you speak of it, I suppose he
must be about John's age. But he acted like a big boy, so we had fine
times," explained Polly, entirely innocent of Eleanor's hints regarding
the young man.
Eleanor threw back her head and laughed heartily. "Just wait until I
tell Bob this. Oh, how she will envy you your chance. Why, she did
everything on earth but fling herself at his head when mother told her
he was the richest catch of the season."
"Why, he told me he was never going to marry until he found another
girl like Anne Stewart! He thinks _she_ is splendid. I asked him why he
didn't marry her, and he teased me by saying I wanted to know too much.
But he did tell me that Anne loved some one else who was a thousand
times better than he, so he had no chance with her."
Eleanor glanced sharply at Polly to see whether she was innocent of
guile or whether she was trying to hide her real meaning. She saw that
her young companion had really no thought of love for herself or for
her brother John. So Eleanor never hinted that she had a suspicion of
the truth about Anne and John.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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