CHAPTER 7


There were not many guests. Elizabeth had chosen them carefully from
families which had known her father, Henry Cornish, when, in his
reckless, adventurous way, he had been laying the basis of the Cornish
fortune in the Rockies. Indeed, she was a little angry when she heard of
the indiscriminate way in which Vance had scattered the invitations,
particularly in Craterville.

But, as he said, he had acted so as to show her that he had entered fully
into the spirit of the thing, and that his heart was in the right place
as far as this birthday party was concerned, and she could not do
otherwise than accept his explanation.

Some of the bidden guests, however, came from a great distance, and as a
matter of course a few of them arrived the day before the celebration and
filled the quiet rooms of the old house with noise. Elizabeth accepted
them with resignation, and even pleasure, because they all had pleasant
things to say about her father and good wishes to express for the
destined heir, Terence Colby. It was carefully explained that this
selection of an heir had been made by both Elizabeth and Vance, which
removed all cause for remark. Vance himself regarded the guests with
distinct amusement. But Terence was disgusted.

"What these true Westerners need," he said to Elizabeth later in the day,
"is a touch of blood. No feeling of family or the dignity of family
precedents out here."