Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/196

 Mr. Teeters bowed profoundly, and as he removed his hat his bang fell in his eyes, so that he looked like a performing Shetland pony.

"Much obliged to meet you, ladies," deferentially. Then to Disston, darkly:

"I'll take that from you onct, or twict, maybe,—but if you call me Clarence three times I'll cut your heart out." Disston grinned understandingly. Toomey was among those who went to the Prouty House to look at the "bunch of millionaires" waiting on the veranda, and his surprise equalled Teeters' at seeing Disston.

"Say, Hughie—I got a deal on that's a pippin—a pippin. There isn't a flaw in it! " said Toomey confidentially.

"Glad to hear it, Jap," Disston replied cordially, and presented him to Mrs. Rathburn and her daughter.

The mother was a small woman of much distinction of appearance. A well-poised manner, together with snowwhite hair worn in a smooth moderate roll away from her face, and very black eyes that had a rather hard brilliancy, made her a person to be noticed. Having engineered her own life successfully, her sole interest now lay in engineering that of her daughter.

The last place Mrs. Rathburn would have selected to spend a summer was an isolated ranch in the sagebrush, but propinquity, she knew, had done wonders in friendships that had seemed hopelessly platonic, so, when Hugh urged them to join him, and endeavored to impart some of his own enthusiasm for the country, she assented.

In another way the daughter was not less noticeable than the mother, though more typically southern, with her soft drawl and appealing manner. Her skin had been so carefully protected since infancy that it was of a dazzling