mind yet she was conscious that she would have preferred to answer the
dispatch herself, and to have let her father come. To a girl brought
up with a belief in the right of individual independence of thought and
action, there was something in Mrs. Randolph's practical ignoring of
that right which startled her in spite of her new conservatism, while,
as the daughter of a business man, her instincts revolted against Mrs.
Randolph's unbusiness-like action with the telegram, however vulgar and
unrefined she may have begun to consider a life of business. The
result was a certain constraint and embarrassment in her manner, which,
however, had the laudable effect of limiting Emile's attention to
significant glances, and was no doubt variously interpreted by the
others. But she satisfied her conscience by determining to make a
confidence of her sympathy to the major on the first opportunity.

This she presently found when the others were preoccupied; the major
greeting her with a somewhat careworn face, but a voice whose habitual
kindness was unchanged. When he had condoled with her on the terrifying
phenomenon that had marred her visit to the ranch,--and she could not
help impatiently noticing that he too seemed to have accepted his wife's
theory that she had been half deliriously frightened,--he regretted that
her father had not concluded to come down to the ranch, as his practical
advice would have been invaluable in this emergency. She was about to
eagerly explain why, when it occurred to her that Mrs. Randolph had only
given him a suppressed version of the telegram, and that she would be
betraying her, or again taking sides in this partisan divided home.
With some hesitation she at last alluded to the accident to the artesian
well. The major did not ask her how she had heard of it; it was a bad
business, he thought, but it might not be a total loss. The water may
have been only diverted by the shock and might be found again at the
lower level, or in some lateral fissure. He had sent hurriedly for Tom