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Page 48
"I shall go down after the mail to-morrow," remarked Clarence, between the
puffs of his pipe.
"So shall I."
"All right; come along!" But though the words sounded hearty, the tone
rather belied them. Clarence was a little puzzled by and did not quite
like this newborn enthusiasm on the part of his comrade.
CHAPTER IX.
OVER A PASS.
True to their resolve, the young heads of the High Valley Ranch rode
together to St. Helen's next day,--ostensibly to get their letters; in
reality to call on their late departed guests. They talked amicably as
they went; but unconsciously each was watching the other's mood and
speech. To like the same girl makes young men curiously observant of each
other.
A disappointment was in store for them. They had taken it for granted that
Clover would be as disengaged and as much at their service as she had been
in the valley; and lo! she sat on the piazza with a knot of girls about
her, and a young man in an extremely "fetching" costume of snow-white
duck, with a flower in his button-hole, was bending over her chair, and
talking in a low voice of something which seemed of interest. He looked
provokingly cool and comfortable to the dusty horsemen, and very much at
home. Phil, who lounged against the piazza-rail opposite, dispensed an
enormous and meaning wink at his two friends as they came up the steps.
Clover jumped up from her chair, and gave them a most cordial reception.
"How delightful to see you again so soon!" she said. Then she introduced
them to a girl in pink and a girl in blue as Miss Perham and Miss
Blanchard, and they shook hands with Marian Chase, whom they already knew,
and lastly were presented to Mr. Wade, the youth in white. The three young
men eyed one another with a not very friendly scrutiny, just veiled by the
necessary outward politeness.
"Then you will be all ready for Thursday,--and your brother too, of
course,--and my mother will stop for you at half-past ten on her way
down," they heard him say. "Miss Chase will go with the Hopes. Oh, yes;
there will be plenty of room. No danger about that. We're almost sure to
have good weather too. Good-morning. I'm so glad you enjoyed the roses."
There was a splendid cluster of Jacqueminot buds in Clover's dress, at
which Clarence glared wrathfully as he caught these words. The only
consolation was that the creature in duck was going. He was making his
last bows; and one of the girls went with him, which still farther reduced
the number of what in his heart Clarence stigmatized as "a crowd."
"I must go too," said the girl in blue. "Good-by, Clover. I shall run in a
minute to-morrow to talk over the last arrangements for Thursday."
"What's going to happen on Thursday?" growled Clarence as soon as she had
departed.
"Oh, such a delightful thing," cried Clover, sparkling and dimpling. "Old
Mr. Wade, the father of young Mr. Wade, whom you saw just now, is a
director on the railroad, you know; and they have given him the
director's car to take a party over the Marshall Pass, and he has asked
Phil and me to go. It is _such_ a surprise. Ever since we came to St.
Helen's, people have been telling us what a beautiful journey it is; but I
never supposed we should have the chance to take it. Mrs. Hope is going
too, and the doctor, and Miss Chase and Miss Perham,--all the people we
know best, in fact. Isn't it nice?"
"Oh, certainly; very nice," replied Clarence, in a tone of deep offence.
He was most unreasonably in the sulks. Clover glanced at him with
surprise, and then at Geoff, who was talking to Marian. He looked a little
serious, and not so bright as in the valley; but he was making himself
very pleasant, notwithstanding. Surely he had the same causes for
annoyance as Clarence; but his breeding forbade him to show whatever
inward vexation he may have felt,--certainly not to allow it to influence
his manners. Clover drew a mental contrast between the two which was not
to Clarence's advantage.
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