The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure — John Shaqi
The Ranch Girls and Their Great AdventureVandercook, Margaret
General
The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure
Vandercook, Margaret
Family -- Fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction; Love stories; Sisters -- Juvenile fiction
"Oh, I don't think you need worry, Frank," Olive returned, "Jack is
fearless but I don't think she has been reckless since the accident she
had when a girl."
Although she could scarcely speak of it, Olive was smiling to herself
over Frank's use of the word "forbid." She never recalled that any one
had ever forbidden Jack to do anything she wished so long as she had
known her. But probably Frank's forbidding was of the gentlest kind.
Olive felt she must remember that the English attitude toward marriage
was not the same as the American, although when an Englishman marries an
American girl they are supposed to strike the happy medium.
Entering the room again just as Frank concluded his speech, Frieda was
even more startled when she recalled that the use of this very word had
been one of the reasons for the most serious quarrel she had ever had
with her husband. Henry had never used the word a second time.
Another hour passed. Still Jack and Captain MacDonnell had not returned.
Moreover, by this time the rain had become a steady downpour. Olive and
Frieda were also uneasy.
"If you will forgive my leaving you, I believe I will go and see if I
can find what has become of the wanderers," Frank suggested. Then,
without further explanation or discussion, he went away.
Ten minutes later, mounted on his own horse, he was riding down the
rain-washed road. He had found that the groom, who had accompanied Jack
and Captain MacDonnell, had gotten separated from them and returned home
half an hour before.
Frank was uncertain whether he were the more angry or uneasy. It seemed
impossible to imagine what misfortune could have befallen his wife and
friend, which would have made it impossible for them to have either
telephoned or sent some message home. Yet it was equally impossible to
conceive that Jack would be so careless as to forget every one else in
the pursuit of her own pleasure. Even if she had been uncertain of his
arrival from London, there was Olive, who had been her guest only a few
days and Frieda not twenty-four hours. But as a matter of fact Jack had
known he would be down sometime during the evening although she did not
know the hour.
July is one of the long twilight months in England. Nevertheless,
because of the rain, the evening was a kind of smoke grey with the
faintest lavender tones in the sky. A heavy mist was also rising from
the ground, so that with the falling rain one could not see many yards
ahead.
Lord Kent's plan was to leave word with his lodgekeeper at the lodge
gate to follow after him in case any word came from Lady Kent, or if she
returned home before he did. But a moment or so before reaching the
lodge, while yet in his own avenue, although at some distance from Kent
House, Frank heard laughter and low voices. There was no doubting the
laughter was Jack's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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